Qantas faces further industrial action on Monday, forcing it to cancel 40 flights and delay a further 24. The strike is the latest in a series of protests by the Australian Licenced Aircraft Engineers Association (ALAEA), which is staging a series of rolling strikes at airports across the country. On Monday 10 October, the union will hold four-hour strikes in Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney.
As well as the cancelled and delayed flights, a further 14 flights will be brought forward. Qantas estimates that more than 11,000 passengers will be affected. This adds to the 5,700 passengers who were hit by strike action today.
The ALAEA strike is due to an ongoing dispute over pay, but Qantas has accused the union of “holding passengers to ransom”.
“Qantas has been in negotiations with the union on a new enterprise bargaining agreement for over 12 months. Qantas licensed aircraft maintenance engineers are already the highest paid in the world and the current demands from the union are unreasonable,” argued the airline’s Group Executive for Government & Corporate Affairs, Olivia Wirth.
“The licensed engineers’ union is demanding significant pay increases and a guarantee from Qantas that no changes will be made to old work practices on new generation aircraft, and that no productivity improvements will be introduced,” she added.
Qantas is facing continued protests from three separate unions; ALAEA, the Transport Workers’ Union (TWU), whose members downed tools today for the third time, and the pilots’ union, which is making unauthorised in-flight announcements on Qantas flights. Earlier this week the airline reached an agreement with its cabin crew union over an enhanced pay deal.
