Article about yesterday’s events:
The stress of the long-running COVID-19 crisis has taken its toll on the Qantas pilots’ union, with the entire executive resigning en masse after learning of moves to replace them.
It’s understood the Australian and International Pilots Association executive was targeted by their own committee of management, after growing discontent among members.
The problems stemmed from dissatisfaction with the executive’s handling of the long haul enterprise agreement and uncertainty over hundreds of pilots’ jobs in the pandemic.
A380 captain Murray Butt was installed as the new AIPA president, just over two years after he was replaced in the top job by 737 pilot Mark Sedgwick.
Captain Butt said there was much concern about the previous executive’s handling of the long haul pay deal, that saw Qantas go over AIPA’s head to put an offer directly to pilots last year.
“(Pilots) had to make a decision based on the offer of backpay which for a lot of them was a big consideration given the stand downs that were occurring at that time,” Capt Butt said.
“As a result the enterprise agreement was endorsed quite strongly. We will never know if that was out of satisfaction with the deal.”
He admitted the stress of the current pandemic was taking its toll on many pilots, with A380 pilots in particular unsure of when they would work again.
Although Qantas Group chief executive Alan Joyce has insisted the superjumbos will return to service, that was unlikely to occur until demand returned to pre-COVID-19 levels, which could be many years away.
It was perhaps not surprising then that the majority of the new AIPA executive, were A380 pilots, including Captain Butt who has gone to work driving buses since COVID-19 struck.
“There is a greater presence of A380 pilots,” Captain Butt conceded.
“They have a greater motivation than anybody to ensure the best outcomes of any talks we have with Qantas going forward.”
As a first step, Captain Butt said AIPA wanted to bring a number of issues to a head with Qantas so pilots could make a decision on their futures.
“As a first step, we want to get a better understanding of where Qantas would like this to go, the different plans they’re examining at the moment so that we can come up with something that’s of benefit to the pilots and the airlines,” he said.
“They obviously have greater information of their capital needs, the aircraft requirements, the forward bookings – information that’s not readily available to pilots.”
The “changing of the guard” within AIPA was still being digested by many Qantas pilots on Tuesday with one expressing his disappointment at the upheaval.
Another pilot, who did not want to be named, said members of the new executive had deliberately set out to destabilise Mr Sedgwick and his team, with a sometimes “vile” campaign.
“Many of them were advocating postponing the long haul enterprise agreement vote in March last year,” said the pilot.
“What a complete debacle that would have been now to still have that EA open.”
As well as Captain Butt, the new line-up included two former executives involved in the industrial campaign that led to Qantas being grounded in 2011.
Former president Barry Jackson and former vice-president David Backhouse gained a reputation for their hardball style but the pilot questioned if that was suited to 2021.
“Hopefully they’ve learned something from that experience,” said the pilot.