This cut and paste from news.com.au -
Bid to stop Qantas 'strike breakers'
By Bianca Wordley
October 4, 2004
THE union representing international flight attendants will meet Qantas management in Sydney tomorrow over claims the airline is training a team of strike breakers.
Flight Attendants Association of Australia (FAAA), which represents about 4000 international flight attendants, said it would take the matter to the Australian Industrial Relations Commission this week if talks with the company failed tomorrow.
The divisional secretary of the International Division, Michael Mijatov, said 170 new fixed term workers, who are not considered ongoing full time employees, were being trained by Qantas but had not been guaranteed employment with the company.
"They are merely being trained to use as strike breakers," Mr Mijatov said today.
"These people are desperate to get work with Qantas but they are just being used.
"They are being put on the shelf to be used as strike breakers."
He said they were "urgently meeting with Qantas over their use of these fixed termers".
"What we are saying is this is in breach of our EBA (enterprise bargaining agreement)," he said.
"They should be employed by the company straightaway and not put on hold as an alternative workforce."
He said another 150 fixed term workers were trained earlier this year but were given employment with Qantas.
There are no restrictions on the number of fixed term staff Qantas is allowed to hire or train, he said.
Mr Mijatov claimed the workers were being trained to provide relief if staff took strike action in December, as previously foreshadowed.
He said the EBA expired on December 17 and it was expected members would take widespread industrial action over a number of issues.
These included the use of fixed termers and the company's plan to open another overseas base in London and its attempts to lift overseas staff restrictions at its Bangkok and Auckland bases, which would take jobs away from Australian staff.
International, or long haul attendants, were also angry at the company's decision to staff its new fleet of Airbus A330s, which fly to Hong Kong, with domestic attendants.
A spokeswoman for Qantas confirmed the management would be meeting the union tomorrow on a range of issues.
The company has previously denied it had breached the EBA and said it was training staff for the busy holiday period.
AAP
L2P "S.T.R".