Almost 500 Qantas line maintenance engineers will be walking off the job for 24 hours from Friday 13th December across most major capital cities, as frustrated workers reach a stalemate with the airline over their wage dispute.
Highly skilled engineers will be undertaking a full day stoppage from 3:30am local time on Friday morning until 7:30am local time Saturday morning.
Stoppages will take place at Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide.
The strike action will likely have an immediate impact as line maintenance workers are responsible for towing and marshalling aircraft.
The Qantas Engineers’ Alliance (QEA) – made of members from the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU), Australian Workers’ Union (AWU), and the Electrical Trades Union (ETU) – have collectively signalled further industrial actions to come after the major airline reneged on its commitment to consider a proposal put forward by Alliance members.
The stoppages come after a six-week break in protected industrial action, after the Alliance paused strike action to show their commitment to reaching an agreement during negotiations. Workers are now forced to take action after the airline again refused to negotiate.
Workers are preparing for increasing industrial action in the coming weeks if Qantas refuses to negotiate, with a further stoppage planned for Friday 20th December.
Negotiations for the new EA – which expired in June – first began in April. The Alliance has put forward a wage claim of 5 per cent per year, with a 15 per cent first-year increase to compensate for 3.5 years of wage freezes and to raise wages in line with industry standards.
Although Alliance Unions reduced their claims, Qantas refused to budge on their initial offer of 3 per cent per year over the course of three years.
Last week, Alliance Unions members also voted to expand industrial action if Qantas continues to refuse to negotiate, voting overwhelmingly in favour of approximately 40 partial work bans which would include bans on the towing and docking of aircraft, overtime, marshalling, servicing components, and issuing aircraft parts from stores.
Attributed to Steve Murphy, AMWU National Secretary:
“Workers were asked by Qantas in good faith to not take industrial action as a commitment to resolve bargaining. For six weeks, Qantas has shown they cannot live up to their own values – they lied. Aircraft Maintenance Workers are feeling disrespected by the behaviour of Qantas and we all know how that feels.”
“Workers have no other choice now, that during the holiday period, they will be taking industrial action to bring Qantas back to the bargaining table. Qantas is to blame if there’s any disruption to commuters over the holiday period. They have had six weeks to simply do what they said they would.”
Attributed to Paul Farrow, AWU National Secretary:
“Engineers are confused about the persistent disrespect from their employer. Alan Joyce’s departure was meant to mean a new era for Qantas management, but this is just the same old playbook: treat skilled employees as if they’re dispensable and hope that customers don’t notice.
“Qantas still means something to our members. They take their responsibilities incredibly seriously. They want to preserve Qantas’s enviable historic reputation for safety. But that’s going to be hard to do long-term when they receive only disdain from Qantas management.”
Attributed to Michael Wright , ETU National Secretary:
"These highly skilled workers have been bargaining in good faith with Qantas. They have suffered pay freezes during Covid and are only asking for the fair pay they deserve. Qantas only has the safety record it does because of these workers.
“Qantas could end this right now and come to the table with a fair pay offer. It’s disgraceful that Qantas is not respecting these workers and the crucial work they do."
Union media contacts:
AMWU: Sonia Feng 0478 599 580
AWU: Tim Brunero 0405 285 547
ETU: Joanne Sutton 0410 101 902