Qantas workers across the country will take a stand for jobs, safety and a fairer industry, as they strike for 24 hours today at Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth Airports.
After years of Joyce-fuelled job insecurity and rock bottom pay, workers from Qantas subsidiaries QGS and AAE (moving freight including for Australia Post), and QantasLink (a nationwide passenger network) , are seeking an urgent reset, calling for:
· Fair pay in line with industry standards after a decade of wage suppression;
· More full-time jobs and hours so they can make ends meet and secure their future; and
· Work groups to be brought back under one Qantas banner to reduce deadly safety failings
In Sydney, they will be joined by up to 400 safety screeners conducting two sets of 2-hour stoppages, and a further 3-hour stoppage on 28 September.
Qantas' underhanded conduct of dividing its workforce among multiple subsidiaries has splintered the aviation workforce, draining experience from airports and leading to dangerously unsafe standards for both workers and the travelling public. A Qantas Freight worker was tragically killed on Father's Day last year.
Airport security workers at Sydney have faced years of uncertainty, with Sydney Airport's threats to end contracts draining experience and leading to job insecurity, poor pay, and dangerously low standards for workers and passengers.
With the aviation industry in a crisis of declining jobs and passenger standards, the TWU is calling on airlines and airports making huge profits to fund decent wages and reliable jobs to those who provide these crucial services.
TWU National Secretary Michael Kaine said:
"Workers today are standing up for what Australian aviation should be: an industry of good careers that functions properly for the public, not a vehicle for executive bonuses.
"Qantas management is still reading from the Alan Joyce playbook that gutted one of the most iconic Australian companies in history. For Qantas to return to the flying kangaroo that workers and the public used to be proud of, management needs a fundamental reset. We need to see this company return to seeing its staff as an investment, not a cost to be ruthlessly driven down.
"Strike action is always a last resort, but we are literally seeing workers maimed and killed keeping these critical services going. Disruption today is a direct result of Qantas management's appalling disregard for a reliable long-term aviation sector in favour of billions in short-term profits."
TWU NSW Secretary Richard Olsen said:
"Security staff are on strike alongside Qantas workers today because the most profitable airport in the country has driven down their wages and conditions for years.
"Sydney Airport has no problem charging the travelling public a small fortune for parking, but refuses to guarantee decent jobs for workers providing crucial safety services.
"Sydney Airport must step in and properly fund the companies it uses to carry out these critical services for millions of travellers every year."
