Qantas travellers have been put on alert for flight disruptions as its engineers begin a fortnight of industrial action ahead of the football grand finals in Melbourne.
The strike, which started in Melbourne on the morning of Sept. 26, may have a ripple effect around the nation, causing more flight delays in the coming days, as the union has warned.
At the core of the strike is a pay dispute, with unions demanding a delayed 15 percent pay rise and a further five percent per year going forward to make up for the wage freezes for the past 3.5 years.
The negotiation covers roughly 1,100 aircraft maintenance employees, who comprise 45 percent of Qantas’ engineering workforce.
Australian Workers Union National Secretary Paul Farrow said the airline had refused to accept a “fair deal.”
“You can’t expect to announce billions in profits and executive bonuses and simultaneously tell the engineers who keep your planes safe to take less and less home to their families,” he said.
Meanwhile, Australian Manufacturing Workers Union National Secretary Steve Murphy says workers feel undervalued and underappreciated.
“If you’ve had a bad Qantas experience, well, that’s nothing compared to how Qantas makes their workers feel every day,” Murphy said.
“Our highly skilled members deserve fair wages for the incredible work they do to keep us all safe in the air.”
However, Qantas airline thinks otherwise. CEO Vanessa Hudson said that the airline’s deliberate reduction in margins on its international flights was to meet the needs of shareholders, employees, and customers.
Qantas reported a 2023-24 profit of $1.25 billion, down 28.3 percent from the previous 12 months.
Although many interstate visitors are expected to travel to Melbourne in the coming days to watch the AFL Grand Final, the unions plan to take industrial action on Sept. 30, Oct. 2, and Oct. 14 for the NRL Grand Final in Sydney. Despite this, Qantas said the strikes will have minimal impact on travellers due to contingency plans.
“We’re putting contingencies in place and don’t currently expect this industrial action to have an impact on customers,” a spokesperson said.
Furthermore, Qantas said that a series of meetings had already been held with the unions, and some progress had been made in terms of pay rises and other benefits.
“We’ve held a series of meetings with the unions and made progress on a number of items,” the airline said.
“We want to reach an agreement that includes pay rises and lifestyle benefits for our people.”
