Qantas strike sparks fears over flight delays as school holidays kick off in one Australian state
Qantas engineers plan to strike in Sydney, coinciding with the NSW school holidays and the lead-up to the NRL grand final, as they ramp up their fight for better pay.
Qantas engineers plan to strike in Sydney, coinciding with the NSW school holidays and the lead-up to the NRL grand final, as they ramp up their fight for better pay.
Many workers will stay at home at the beginning of next week as their union pushes for a 15 per cent pay rise in the first year of a new enterprise agreement, followed by five per cent each year after that.
On Thursday, strike action by Qantas engineers in Melbourne threatened disruptions ahead of Saturdays AFL Grand Final, but the airline said customers werent affected.
Australian Workers Union national secretary Paul Farrow said there was no strategy behind the timing of Mondays strike, following four months of negotiations.
He sympathised with Qantas passengers who might face delays.
Its completely understandable but thats a problem for Qantas, not a problem for our members, because our members only have a window to negotiate their wages and thats when their agreement expires, he said on Friday.
Anyone thats got any frustrations, please take it up with Qantas.
Qantas engineers have planned to strike in Sydney as school holidays kick off and travellers flock to the city for the NRL Grand Final (stock image)
Australian Workers Union national secretary Paul Farrow said there was no strategy behind the timing of Mondays strike which follows four months of negotiations (stock image)
He described the airlines offer, of an annual three per cent pay rise, as a slap in the face particularly after wage freezes and redundancies during the height of the Covid pandemic.
Our members are asked to share the pain when the companys going through tough times, and they do, Mr Farrow said.
When the company starts turning around billion dollar profits and the employees say, "well now times are good"... the response is no.
About 1,100 aircraft maintenance workers, which is about 45 per cent of the airlines engineers, are covered by the agreement under negotiation.
Some 300,000 people are transiting through airports in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane ahead of the AFL Grand Final on Saturday, according to the Tourism and Transport Forum.
Victorian Minister for Sport Steve Dimopoulos on Friday said Qantas and Virgin Australia had to put on about 40 extra flights to accommodate passengers travelling from Brisbane and Sydney to Melbourne for the AFL Grand Final.
A survey of 1,500 people by PureProfile found 71 per cent of Australians plan to take a break in September or October, with about one third heading interstate or overseas.
