SYDNEY — The two main unions covering Qantas maintenance workers, the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) and the Australian Workers Union (AWU), won a small victory on February 4 when they forced Qantas to stop standing down maintenance workers who have refused to do compulsory overtime.

On February 1, Qantas began standing down hundreds of maintenance workers at Tullamarine and Sydney airports for refusing to do overtime. By February 3, with hundreds of workers stood down, Qantas' aircraft maintenance schedule was a mess. Qantas was prepared to lock out its entire maintenance work force.

AMWU industrial officer Tim Ayres told Green Left Weekly that, since November, Qantas maintenance workers covered by the AMWU and AWU have had an overtime ban in force, a work-to-rule campaign and have held a series of 24-hour and 48-hour stoppages. Workers are campaigning for a new enterprise agreement which includes an upfront 6% wage increase.

In October, Qantas chief executive officer Geoff Dixon announced that Qantas “needed” to implement a wage freeze on Qantas staff for the next 18 months because of the international downturn in the aviation industry.

However, Dixon also told shareholders that, since September 11, Qantas had become the healthiest airline in the world. The collapse of Ansett means that Qantas has a near-monopoly in the Australian airline market.

In November, during negotiations with unions over the wage freeze, Dixon announced that Qantas needed to cut 2000 jobs before Christmas. Unions were immediately suspicious that the purpose of the announcement was to pressure them into accepting the wage freeze.

These suspicions were confirmed when Qantas announced on January 20 that it would scrap plans to shed 2000 jobs. This announcement was made after most Qantas unions agreed to accept the freeze.

Only four unions are opposing the wage freeze: the AMWU, the AWU, the international flight attendants and the Transport Workers Union. Domestic flight attendants have accepted the wage freeze. The TWU leadership initially agreed to the wage freeze, but TWU members rejected it.

Only the AMWU and AWU are waging an industrial campaign.

In January, the AMWU and AWU negotiators thought they had reached an agreement with Qantas for a 6% wage increase, phased in until July 2003.

When this agreement was put to a mass meeting on January 16, 70% of members rejected it because they didn't trust Qantas to deliver the wage increase in stages. Members instructed their leadership to get 6% upfront. Maintenance workers also want strict guidelines and limits on the contracting out of maintenance work and equal pay for equal work.

Ayres told GLW that an immediate wage increase was a really important issue for Qantas maintenance workers, because these highly skilled workers are among the most underpaid skilled work force in the country. They only earn, on average, $30,000 per year.

Ayres pointed out that it was hypocritical of Qantas to demand a wage freeze when it reported a profit of more than $500 million last year.

From Green Left Weekly, February 13, 2002.
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