By James Vassilopoulos
Up to 1000 jobs will be lost under Qantas plans to contract out its customer service and ramp services work at Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth airports.
According to the Australian Services Union (ASU), almost all workers who work on the ground at these airports will have their positions subject to tender. Qantas expects that current workers will have to form internal bid teams to tender for the jobs.
According to ASU national secretary Paul Slape, the contracting out "threatens our members' jobs, as they will be forced to bid for their jobs against some very large multinationals. Our members say this process is only designed to drive wages and conditions down and force redundancies."
The tendering may be only the beginning. More contracting is set to follow at Sydney airport in September.
The ASU, however, does not oppose outsourcing outright. At the ASU's national airlines division council meeting, Slape said: "Our members do not accept that the competitive tendering process is the proper tool to achieve workplace reform. They may be prepared to go down this path only if a proper process is put in place which addresses the key issues of job security, pay rates, resources and consultation."
Ted Lord, an ASU Qantas delegate, says that this is not good enough. "The union must oppose outsourcing and lead a campaign to defend members' jobs and conditions. Once jobs are outsourced, there can be no real protection of jobs or pay rates."
Qantas was set to advertise for tenders on May 23. The ASU organised a union delegates' meeting on May 21, to consider the union's response to the proposed advertisement. The union wanted members to endorse a 10-point plan, which included a request for Qantas to withdraw the advertisements for registrations of interest from tenderers.
In a provocative response, Qantas decided to place advertisements in newspapers a day earlier. It also successfully applied to the Australian Industrial Relations Commission to prohibit the ASU from taking any industrial action before June 10.
"The ball is now in the union's court", said Lord. "The union needs to involve the membership in a serious campaign to fight for jobs and conditions, including industrial action which hurts the profits of Qantas.
"The union must also link up with the community to show how tendering will worsen services and increase the risk of accidents. But at this stage it seems that Qantas is calling the shots and the union is surrendering."
Earlier in May, Qantas sacked 52 aircraft maintenance apprentices, two weeks before they finished their four-year apprenticeship. It also abolished 185 engineering jobs. All these measures are designed to reduce costs, despite Qantas making substantial profits.