ID :
213197
Fri, 10/28/2011 - 12:51
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Unions promise more Qantas strike action

SYDNEY (AAP) - Oct 28 - Angry unions have vowed further strike action against Qantas, which chief executive Alan Joyce says will cost jobs and $15 million a week in lost profits.
Small shareholders, management and employees walked away from the airline's annual general meeting (AGM) in Sydney on Friday with little satisfaction.
Meanwhile protesters joined unions outside the AGM chanting, "Stop the cuts, save the jobs, end corporate greed."
The Transport Workers Union (TWU), which represents Qantas ground crew workers, threatened more industrial action in the lead-up to the holiday season.
"Qantas is quite clear about escalating this industrial dispute and all forms of action, including one-hour stoppages, four-hour stoppages and the potential for 48-hour stoppages, are being contemplated as we speak," TWU national secretary Tony Sheldon said outside the meeting.
TWU members stopped work on Friday for one hour at major airports around the country.
Qantas said the action delayed up to 70 flights, affecting 10,000 customers.
Mr Joyce announced on Friday that industrial action by ground crew, pilots and aircraft engineers over the past two months had cost the airline $68 million and affected about 71,000 passengers.
All up, Qantas has cancelled 129 flights and delayed another 387.
The airline has also grounded seven aircraft, due to a maintenance backlog, leading to another 500 cancelled flights.
Union leaders have warned that protracted pay negotiations and disputes over Qantas creating a premium-service airline in Asia could last another year.
Mr Joyce said this could be at the peril of workers.
"If this continues it will cost jobs," he said.
"This can't go on for 12 months."
He also said union leaders were jeopardising jobs by urging the public to fly with other airlines.
"I don't think these union leaders have the interest of the members' jobs, because they have to know that that is going to cause damage to the employment position of a lot of Qantas employees," he said.
The Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association (ALAEA) said it would not hold strike action for the next three weeks, but future action will depend on pay negotiations.
"We're hoping that Qantas comes to the board with some sort of a compromise deal," ALAEA federal secretary Steve Purvinas told reporters after the AGM concluded.
Australian and International Pilots Association (AIPA) vice president Captain Richard Woodward said pilots would consider "a range of options" but none involve walking off the job.
"I would describe recent media speculation by corporate spin merchants that we're going to strike at Christmas as bovine excrement," Mr Woodward told reporters after the AGM concluded.
He said the 96 per cent voting approval of the Qantas executive remuneration package at the AGM reflected the support of large institutional investors.
"It was a corporate closing of ranks behind each other," he said.
Mr Joyce said Qantas had not asked Prime Minister Julia Gillard to intervene via the Fair Work Act. "We haven't," he told ABC radio.
Assistant Treasurer Bill Shorten said Qantas and the unions would be able to work out a solution on their own.
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said it was time the federal government took action.
"This is getting worse and worse, and I think it is time for the prime minister to get active," Mr Abbott told the Nine Network.
The Nationals spokesman Brett Heffernan said it was time the government put a stop to the strike action.
But former Liberal workplace relations minister Peter Reith said government intervention was not the solution.
"Quite frankly, that is old thinking and it doesn't work," Mr Reith told Sky News.
The NSW and Victorian premiers called on Ms Gillard on Thursday to intervene.




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