TWU CONTINUES TO TARGET QANTAS PASSENGERS

SYDNEY, 30 September 2011: The Transport Workers Union (TWU) will continue its campaign targeting Qantas passengers by taking protected industrial action on Friday 7 October – one of the last days of school holidays.

Qantas received notification of the action this afternoon, just hours after a one-hour stoppage by the TWU across the country caused disruption for thousands of Qantas passengers ahead of the long weekend in NSW and ACT and football finals.

The action on 7 October will take place between 4:00pm and 6:00pm, a peak travel period.

Qantas Group Executive Olivia Wirth said the decision was cynical, damaging and counterproductive.

“The TWU’s conduct is a disgrace, showing that it has absolutely no interest in returning to the negotiating table on behalf of its members.

“Today’s strike action had barely ended before the TWU began talking about the next round. Clearly, the TWU leadership has absolutely no concerns about the impact its behaviour is having on the travelling public.

“This is nothing less than a campaign to cause anxiety and inconvenience for Qantas customers and intimidate Qantas management. Once again, the union has deliberately chosen to go on strike at a time that will hurt travellers – families returning from school holidays or businesspeople returning from interstate meetings.

“Taking strike action does nothing to progress negotiations – in fact, the union leadership is doing its members a disservice.”

Ms Wirth said Qantas would consider the likely impact of the strike and do everything possible to minimise its effect on customers.

“As we have done during the previous two TWU strikes, we will look to implement contingency plans that enable us to maintain operations. However, there are likely to be flight cancellations and a high number of delays.”

Ms Wirth said despite months of negotiations on a new enterprise bargaining agreement, Qantas had been unable to reach an agreement with the TWU.

“The TWU’s claim for 15 per cent pay increase over the next three years is just not sustainable in the current economic environment – and given Qantas workers are already the best-paid in the industry.

“We are willing to negotiate reasonable pay increases, but the TWU is asking us to agree to rates 12 per cent higher than it accepted in its new deal with Virgin (and which includes a wage freeze and a lower pay scale for new starters). This would give Virgin a significant competitive advantage over Qantas.

“The union also wants to place restrictions on Qantas which would remove our flexibility to scale our workforce up and down in line with busy and quiet periods.”

Recent industrial action by the TWU

TWU strike action on Tuesday 20 September forced Qantas to cancel 28 flights and delay 27 flights, causing disruption for more than 6,100 passengers.

TWU strike action on Friday 30 September, combined with ongoing action by the Australian Licenced Aircraft Engineers Association (ALAEA), caused 39 flight delays and two cancellations, affecting 8,500 passengers.

In March 2009 the TWU took unprotected strikes for around four hours in Brisbane, Sydney, Adelaide and Perth, causing considerable disruption to Qantas passengers. The Federal Court found in July this year that the TWU and senior officials had acted unlawfully and the TWU was fined and required to pay compensation.