Qantas engineers to strike for 24 hours tomorrow across most capital cities

Nearly 500 Qantas maintenance engineers will walk off the job for 24 hours tomorrow across every capital city except Canberra and Darwin due to frustration over wage negotiations with the national carrier.

On Friday (13 December), the engineers will undertake a full-day stoppage from 3:30 am local time until 7:30 am local time the next day. The strike action at Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide is expected to have an immediate impact as line maintenance workers are responsible for towing and marshalling aircraft.

The Qantas Engineers’ Alliance (QEA) – comprised of members from the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU), Australian Workers’ Union (AWU) and the Electrical Trades Union (ETU) – said further industrial action would come after the airline reneged on its commitment to consider a proposal they put forward.

AMWU National Secretary Steve Murphy said 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,” he said. “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.”

Negotiations for the Qantas workers’ new Enterprise Agreement that expired in June first began in April.

The QEA report they’ve made a wage claim of a 15 per cent first-year increase (with five per cent for every year after) to compensate for three and a half years of wage freezes and to raise wages in line with industry standards.

The alliance of unions said Qantas refused to change their initial offer of 3 per cent per year over the course of three years.

AWU National Secretary Paul Farrow said Alan Joyce’s departure was meant to herald a new era for Qantas management, “but this is just the same old playbook”.

“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.”

Last week, members of the QEA voted to expand industrial action if Qantas continues to refuse to negotiate – with a further stoppage already planned for next Friday (20 December)

The union alliance voted 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.

In response to the planned strikes, Qantas said it has put a number of contingencies in place to ensure customers get on their way.

“Qantas is putting a number of plans in place and expects to have the resources available to cover all planned services,” a spokesperson said.

“Passengers should head to the airport as they normally would.”

The national carrier said they’ve been able to manage the impact of these ongoing negotiations to date and have not resulted in any delays or cancellations for customers.

With additional aircraft and crew on standby “to help ensure a safe and smooth travel experience”, the spokesperson said they’re prepared to recover customers in the event of seasonal weather or other impacts, “including the return of a Qantas Airbus A380 from late December”.

“As always at this time of year, our aircraft are full and airports are busy, so we urge customers to give themselves more time to get through security and get to their aircraft.

“We’re offering our engineers a competitive package including pay rises, upskilling and career progression that will enable them to earn significantly more over the next few years.”