Qantas grounds entire fleet

Qantas grounds entire fleet

www.news.com.au

Qantas will lock out all its employees covered by the agreements that are currently in dispute, forcing an immediate grounding of its entire fleet.

(visit the link for the full news article)



Mod Edit: Review This Link: Breaking Alternative News Guidelines -- Copy the Exact Headline

Wow!
This is very big news. Qantas has been an Australian staple company for over a century and is its largest airline.
For those who don’t know Qantas and its employees have been locked in a pay dispute for some time now. Both are not moving on the issue.
The CEO has taken many pay rises in recent times but refuses to give rises to the companies many workers.

THESE WORKERS ARE HEROS!
They have shown that the people have the power and have cost Qantas millions already!
I can’t believe what Qantas is doing is legal, their workers deserve better pay but get treated like idiots while upper management increases their pay constantly.
The company has had a bad track record over the last few years.

The only problem is it gives more power to Virgin, and who wants Richard branson any richer?

READ THIS

www.news.com.au
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by ShortMemory


This is VERY big news, in the airline industry.

I am admittedly biased here, on the side of labor (or, 'labour')....so, this will be watched closely.

Going now to my ALPA sites to review the latest info......

Here in the States....an image that happened to coincide (coincidentally) with the OWS in NYC:



For those not aware, this is about very, very sloooooowwww negotiation tactics on the part of managements at both Continental and United Airlines.....in the process currently of merging.

In the case of the Continental side, they (pilots) have been working at frozen wages since the "Amendable Date" of 2008!! The new contract should have been in place by that Fall, 2008.

Corporate America (and now Corporate Australia) follow the same guidelines in terms of bad-faith tactics, when it comes to properly negotiating.

Originally posted by ProudBird
reply to post by ShortMemory

 

This is VERY big news, in the airline industry.

I am admittedly biased here, on the side of labor (or, 'labour')....so, this will be watched closely.

Going now to my ALPA sites to review the latest info......

not just for aviation but every union and worker in australia
qantas has shown that it does not value its employees and puts profit above what many corporations might call their 'family'
i dont think its bias to be on the side of the workers because its something that really shouldnt be up for debate anyway. qantas should have to treat its workers fairly.
i think a lot of people might get a shock that they can actually do this legally.

reply to post by ShortMemory


I've thought all along Qantas had a plan when they brought in this new CEO..

IMO he's the axe man..

Qantas Australia will be no more and their planes will be flown by whoever will fly them for the least money..
Serviced and cleaned by cheap contractors..

Meanwhile the CEO gets a 70% pay rise...

Reminds me of a time in the USA, not that long ago, when air traffic controllers decided to strike and were faced with the choice of continuing work or be fired. When the needs of the few outweigh the needs of the many, this is what happens. You can be self-serving, self-oriented, selfish sometimes, but when such affects civilization, that can be a problem.

Good luck down there.

That certainly is a bold move. That is a huge company which I am sure the ramifications are going to be felt elsewhere. Did not really know what is going on before your post, thanks for the links will check it out.

Originally posted by backinblack
reply to post by ShortMemory

 

I've thought all along Qantas had a plan when they brought in this new CEO..

IMO he's the axe man..

Qantas Australia will be no more and their planes will be flown by whoever will fly them for the least money..
Serviced and cleaned by cheap contractors..

Meanwhile the CEO gets a 70% pay rise...

i understand what you mean, i remember when he came in.
it would make sense because he has got away with a lot of money by increasing his bonuses and salary.. i wouldnt be suprised if hes gone by eofy
i hope they go down in flames but then what i really want is the employees to be treated equally and like they should be

Originally posted by abecedarian
Reminds me of a time in the USA, not that long ago, when air traffic controllers decided to strike and were faced with the choice of continuing work or be fired. When the needs of the few outweigh the needs of the many, this is what happens. You can be self-serving, self-oriented, selfish sometimes, but when such affects civilization, that can be a problem.

Good luck down there.

air traffic controllers? they make heaps of money, why were they striking?
your right, but the managment and owners are the winners and workers are the big losers no matter what.
they certianly need it

reply to post by ShortMemory

air traffic controllers? they make heaps of money, why were they striking?

Look up PATCO. 1981. Reagan Administration.

Here: www.workers.org...

Strike was over pay and working conditions, poorly staffed bureaucratic government-run mistakes in FAA facilities.

What they made the mistake in was not screaming "SAFETY!" at the top of their lungs. Lesson learned, later....

reply to post by ProudBird

Look up PATCO. 1980. Reagan Administration. Strike was over pay and working conditions, poorly staffed bureaucratic government-run mistakes in FAA facilities. What they made the mistake in was not screaming "SAFETY!" at the top of their lungs. Lesson learned, later....

i remember hearing about this actually..
yeah they certianly learnt a lot of lessons

reply to post by ShortMemory


The thing is.....going to the extreme measure of a system-wide grounding of a company as large as Qantas??

Based on my personal experience in the airline business...this does not bode well for the rank-and-file union members involved in the labour dispute.. (or for ANY of the staff, for that matter).

Does Australia have corporate bankruptcy laws that companies can hide behind, as in the USA??

In my opinion, any CEO that takes multiple pay raises and then does what this one does is a real human dirtbag.. and incredibly stupid to boot...

Do you realize what can happen when someone like this CEO acts this way to his/her employees? Some of those employees are liable to sabotage aircraft and other not very nice things... If you think no way would anyone do that, you would be wrong..

I worked for Boeing during the late '80's till 1996 and a friend of mine that I went to school with throughout childhood also worked there and became a general manager, who later became specially assigned to cases of employee sabotage of aircraft, and I kid you not, he caught quite a few people that had cut wire bundles in new airplanes, (747-400's) and 767's, but before they started catching these people, there were a couple incidence where the aircraft actually crashed and people died all due to sabotage... You might remember one incident where a rudder stuck to the right or left causing the plane to crash...

The cause was sabotage, but the MSM and official sources all said it was some other defect of course.. They would never willingly admit a cause being sabotage by employees..

These people that did this claimed they were getting revenge against the company for allowing the Boeing chairman to exhorbitantly enrich himself , but then fight tooth and nail against employees getting what they wanted without having long strikes and stuff..

If they get through the next strike and Quantas starts flying again, I would throw away my boarding pass and take the bus, or swim before I would get on any Quantas aircraft...

Originally posted by ShortMemory

Originally posted by ProudBird
reply to post by ShortMemory

 

This is VERY big news, in the airline industry.

I am admittedly biased here, on the side of labor (or, 'labour')....so, this will be watched closely.

Going now to my ALPA sites to review the latest info......

not just for aviation but every union and worker in australia
qantas has shown that it does not value its employees and puts profit above what many corporations might call their 'family'
i dont think its bias to be on the side of the workers because its something that really shouldnt be up for debate anyway. qantas should have to treat its workers fairly.
i think a lot of people might get a shock that they can actually do this legally.

edit on 29-10-2011 by ShortMemory because: (no reason given)

Hasn't it become evident that this is true about any Corporate entity in the last 50 years? Ford is rolling over in his grave right now i am sure.... check out Fordism...something that died with him, sadly.

reply to post by ProudBird

The thing is.....going to the extreme measure of a system-wide grounding of a company as large as Qantas?? Based on my personal experience in the airline business...this does not bode well for the rank-and-file union members involved in the labour dispute.. (or for ANY of the staff, for that matter). Does Australia have corporate bankruptcy laws that companies can hide behind, as in the USA??

well time will tell wont it, theres not way the future will be positive for qantas thats for sure.
well qantas is no where near bankrupt but there are plenty of scum laws they can hide behind regardless.

Originally posted by ShortMemory

Originally posted by abecedarian
Reminds me of a time in the USA, not that long ago, when air traffic controllers decided to strike and were faced with the choice of continuing work or be fired. When the needs of the few outweigh the needs of the many, this is what happens. You can be self-serving, self-oriented, selfish sometimes, but when such affects civilization, that can be a problem.

Good luck down there.

air traffic controllers? they make heaps of money, why were they striking?
your right, but the managment and owners are the winners and workers are the big losers no matter what.
they certianly need it

The ATC (union) strike came down to working conditions and hours worked. This happened in 1981, to give you some info to look up. Workers complained, the government (FAA) didn't respond favorably, and the workers striked. Reagan basically fired all the workers that wouldn't return to work and issued a life-time ban against re-hiring any controllers that walked out, under the guise of public safety, because, how could anyone fly anywhere if there weren't controllers at airports to direct air traffic? Was he right in doing this? Is it feasible to "turn off" all passenger airline flights on a whim?

Personally, I feel that if government is responsible for the public safety, and certain actions will endanger the public safety, then the government is enabled to do such things. For private corporations to take similar actions... yeah, maybe.

But... baggage handlers strike, luggage doesn't move. Luggage doesn't move, people don't fly. People don't fly, company loses money. Company loses money, employees lose jobs.

Like I said, good luck.

reply to post by alienreality

smiles all round the boardroom

your right they are nothing more then human waste

the msm has been trying to demonize the workers a little bit in recent weeks

Unfortunately, Qantas appears to be going the same way as PanAm did. In order for Qantas to survive and compete with other cheaper airlines, workers will have to take pay cuts or freeze pay rises for a period of 12 months. The next step Qantas will make, sack all workers and employ non-union and foreigners. All the while, Qantas CEO gets a $2M pay rise.

Qantas is not the only large company in trouble. With residential rentals, food, utilities, dental, bank fees, petrol and transport rising faster than inflation, most wages are frozen, some have been for the past 2 years, and are not keeping up with all the hikes of day to day living. We're in a recession, soon to be a depression, this is how Nazi Germany rose when middle class and working class Germans could'nt put food on the table.

As for the unions, it's damned if you do and damned if you don't.

It will be interesting to see how this pans out in the next 7 days. I'm picking the federal Govt will do a Robby Muldoorn in the early 1970s in NZ when all workers from the Dept of Electricity went on strike. Either go back to work or you're sacked! That was the end of unionism in NZ.

Originally posted by bluemirage5
Unfortunately, Qantas appears to be going the same way as PanAm did. In order for Qantas to survive and compete with other cheaper airlines, workers will have to take pay cuts or freeze pay rises for a period of 12 months. The next step Qantas will make, sack all workers and employ non-union and foreigners. All the while, Qantas CEO gets a $2M pay rise.

Qantas is not the only large company in trouble. With residential rentals, food, utilities, dental, bank fees, petrol and transport rising faster than inflation, most wages are frozen, some have been for the past 2 years, and are not keeping up with all the hikes of day to day living. We're in a recession, soon to be a depression, this is how Nazi Germany rose when middle class and working class Germans could'nt put food on the table.

As for the unions, it's damned if you do and damned if you don't.

It will be interesting to see how this pans out in the next 7 days. I'm picking the federal Govt will do a Robby Muldoorn in the early 1970s in NZ when all workers from the Dept of Electricity went on strike. Either go back to work or you're sacked! That was the end of unionism in NZ.

well the workers arent going to cave in so the board wont have much choice.
thing is if the hire foreigners it ruins their 100 year old australian image.. and for atleast a decade thats all theyve had.
yes well it makes sense why he got such a pay rise now; because he wont be there much longer.

the economy and monetary system is a downward spiral. all industrys are going to be crippled soon enough.

the unions have the biggest ace up their sleeves: the people. they have the numbers so when shtf they can build it from the ground up.. or people take action now and stop it from falling.

the fact these laws exist show that the government wont do a thing.
thats the system for you

Considoring QANTAS has the best air safety record in the world you'd think the management would realise it's the result of the people who work for QANTAS. You get what you pay for.

GIVE THEM WHAT THEY WANT! It's not much.