Editorial - Sydney Morning Herald: 29 May 2004
I'm not normally into just the 'cut and paste' routine, but today's editorial in the Sydney Morning Herald offers a somewhat different viewpoint on what will likely be a turbulent EBA negotiation.
QANTAS JOINS JOBS FLIGHT
"The Qantas chief executive, Geoff Dixon, notes a "knee-jerk reaction" each time a company suggests the shift of Australian jobs overseas. To him, it is all a question of hard-nosed common sense. In the era of globalisation, where regulatory boundaries are increasingly irrelevant, companies meet rivals on competitive costs or they perish. The tough arithmetic for locating overseas 840 Qantas cabin crew - a quarter of the airline's international total - is a lot more compelling than Mr Dixon was forthcoming until a leaked internal document exposed Qantas's intentions. Now the plan is out, negotiations should proceed with greater frankness".
"Mr Dixon says Qantas needs to put more workers offshore to increase efficiency and profitability so that the airline can compete more strongly internationally and expand job opportunities in Australia. That might sound self-contradictory. Consider, however, the crew logistics of the longest haul. Flight attendants leaving Sydney rest in a stopover, Singapore or Bangkok, for 24 hours before flying on to London where they spend three or four days in rest. The return flight involves a 48-hour stopover. By the time they return to Sydney, they will have spent 52 hours in flight for their nine days away".
The location of cabin crew in London might not save much on wages but would put a big dent in Qantas's crew accommodation costs. Naturally, Qantas also sees value - $20 million a year worth - in replacing 400 Australians with cheaper overseas workers".
"There are threads, however, not necessarily immediately apparent to a company accountant's eye. Australian workers fear displacement for reasons of individual economic stress, and the community worries whether some modern paradox of wealth equates affluence inversely with job security. The wealthier a nation gets, it sometimes seems, the less able it is to retain the means of wealth for its people. The jobs export in footwear, clothing and textiles to low-cost locations over the past two or three decades, and of call centre jobs more recently, is indicative".
"Qantas has a special, symbolic place in Australian life. If any changes such as those Mr Dixon now rightly proposes become inevitable in these tough times they must be made very carefully. Mr Dixon wants to soften up the unions ahead of a December renegotiation of job rules. His remarks should not be lightly dismissed as bluff and bravado. Too many international airlines have collapsed because they failed to adapt to competition, a result that serves neither shareholder nor worker".