Further strikes could target Qantas as travellers flock to airports during the peak summer holiday season.
Travel chaos was avoided at major airports on Dec. 20 after widespread industrial action by the airline’s engineers on one of the busiest days of the year.
Long-running wage negotiations between a consortium of unions and Australia’s largest airline stalled in November, culminating in a more than 24-hour stoppage.
It was the second such action within a week as the three-union Qantas Engineers’ Alliance targeted the peak holiday travel period with its escalating industrial action.
The unions said more than 1000 engineers across major Australian airports participated in the strikes, although Qantas said only 160 engineers were actually rostered on during the period.
The airline confirmed on Dec. 20 afternoon that the strike had not impacted flights.
The union consortium, comprised of the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union, Australian Workers’ Union and Electrical Trades Union, said Qantas forced the walkout by refusing to negotiate.
The airline had refused to buckle to the union’s wage demand of five percent extra per year with a 15 percent first-year increase.
A union spokeswoman said the actions would continue into the new year but workers hoped Qantas would return to the bargaining table.
“After consecutive years of Qantas exploiting our skills and our labour, as Qantas managers and CEO continue to be paid offensive bonuses and record pay rises, our members’ industrial action aims to impact on Qantas’s operations,” she said.
“The workers are fed up with not getting a taste of the pie, let alone a fair slice.”
A Qantas spokesperson said the airline was working hard to ensure minimal impact on customers and pointed to similar action earlier in December that had little effect on flight scheduling.
“Our teams are working hard to ensure that this industrial action has minimal impact on customers’ holiday plans and we have put a number of contingencies in place and extra resourcing on the ground to ensure our customers get away as planned,” they said in a statement.
The airline, Australia’s largest, said about 160 line maintenance engineers were rostered to work during Dec. 20’s industrial action, while additional workers taking action were part of maintenance teams that did not perform day-of-operation support.
The Australian Workers Union, part of the alliance, posted a picture of Qantas pyjamas to social media in an image that included a card offering “a special thank you to our Qantas team for everything that you do.”
“Because instead of negotiating fair wages with their highly-skilled engineering workforce, Qantas reckons a pair of spare business class pyjamas will pay the bills,” the union said in its post.
The airline said it was offering engineers a competitive package including pay rises, upskilling, and career progression enabling them to earn significantly more in the next few years.
Industrial action has taken place since late September as part of ongoing negotiations but Qantas says it has managed the impact to avoid delays or cancellations for customers.
“It’s disappointing to see the unions targeting people travelling to see loved ones at this time of year,” the airline said.
