TWU SEEKS GOOD FAITH QANTAS TALKS
Posted in:
TWU NEWS,
AVIATION
By Tony Sheldon
National Secretary
Transport Workers Union
21 Sep, 2011
By Tony Sheldon
National Secretary
Transport Workers Union
21 Sep, 2011
The Transport Workers Union of Australia (TWU) has called on Qantas
management to adopt a constructive approach to future enterprise
bargaining negotiations to avoid a repeat of yesterday’s industrial
action at airports across Australia.
The TWU is calling on Qantas to suspend its hostile approach to negotiations and engage in meaningful discussions to ensure the airline functions in the national interest.
“Unfortunately, we saw more evidence of management hostility yesterday, with Qantas representatives distressing employees and their families by insisting on hand delivering threatening letters in the dead of night that were not legally required and could have been sent at any time in the previous five days.
“Qantas then further jeopardized relations with its workforce by taking the absurd decision to lock out staff who were actually trying to make the day run more smoothly”, TWU National Secretary, Tony Sheldon said.
The TWU has shown its good faith by withdrawing a range of bans and shortening yesterday’s stoppage to ensure service disruptions could be minimized.
The Union has repeatedly called on Qantas to show good faith, but is concerned that the former union-busting mining executives now running Qantas’ industrial strategy will not allow it.
“Someone at Qantas has to show leadership instead of hiding behind an endless range of expensive spokespeople who don’t know the facts or what is at stake”, Tony Sheldon said.
Qantas has angered aviation unions in the past six weeks with cascading announcements, including:
“Qantas these days is looking more like it is run by the people who ran Enron instead of aviation professionals”, Mr Sheldon said.
“We are calling on Qantas to suspend moves to devalue the iconic airline and adopt an honest and constructive approach to negotiations for our members’ sake and the sake of maintaining a quality airline.”
“Unfortunately, we saw more evidence of management hostility yesterday, with Qantas representatives distressing employees and their families by insisting on hand delivering threatening letters in the dead of night that were not legally required and could have been sent at any time in the previous five days.
“Qantas then further jeopardized relations with its workforce by taking the absurd decision to lock out staff who were actually trying to make the day run more smoothly”, TWU National Secretary, Tony Sheldon said.
The TWU has shown its good faith by withdrawing a range of bans and shortening yesterday’s stoppage to ensure service disruptions could be minimized.
The Union has repeatedly called on Qantas to show good faith, but is concerned that the former union-busting mining executives now running Qantas’ industrial strategy will not allow it.
“Someone at Qantas has to show leadership instead of hiding behind an endless range of expensive spokespeople who don’t know the facts or what is at stake”, Tony Sheldon said.
Qantas has angered aviation unions in the past six weeks with cascading announcements, including:
- sacking 1000 Australian staff while recording a 120% profit increase
- relentlessly running down the reputation of Qantas International
- establishing new aviation businesses in under or unregulated countries
- awarding senior executives pay increases of 50 to 71%
“Qantas these days is looking more like it is run by the people who ran Enron instead of aviation professionals”, Mr Sheldon said.
“We are calling on Qantas to suspend moves to devalue the iconic airline and adopt an honest and constructive approach to negotiations for our members’ sake and the sake of maintaining a quality airline.”