Ben Courtice, Melbourne
Qantas aircraft maintenance workers marched to passenger terminals in Melbourne on February 28 and in Sydney on March 1 to protest against management's threat to move up to 3000 maintenance jobs to other countries in Asia. The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) and Australian Workers Union (AWU) members leafleted passengers about the dispute, and Qantas temporarily closed its Melbourne domestic terminal in response.
Qantas had threatened to move the jobs last October if Singapore Airlines was allowed into Qantas's lucrative Sydney to Los Angeles route. The federal government ruled that out, but Qantas is now threatening to relocate the jobs if the government does not both lift the 49% foreign ownership cap on Qantas and change the depreciation schedule to allow the company to write off new aircraft faster.
At the same time, Qantas has announced its intention to use the new federal industrial relations laws to restructure, and made a large contribution to the Business Council of Australia's advertising campaign in support of the laws. Ian Johnson, an AMWU delegate at Qantas in Melbourne, told Green Left Weekly the company is "using workers' jobs as a negotiating tool" to force concessions from both the government and the employees.
The maintenance workers in the AMWU and AWU will hold another round of mass meetings on March 6 to discuss the next steps in their campaign. Johnson said the workers are "moderately optimistic" about winning.
The unions are seeking to have their existing enterprise agreements rolled into a common law deed to protect matters that are not allowed in agreements covered by the federal IR laws. The agreement they are seeking is for job security with no further outsourcing (including overseas), an improved classification structure and a pay rise linked to the Consumer Price Index.
Qantas executives do not appear to be feeling the need for wage restraint. Last year, Qantas CEO Geoff Dixon received a remuneration package worth more than $6.4 million.
From Green Left Weekly, March 8, 2006.
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