Possums, it would be a great idea to just chill for a little while. Rest assured that Oldmeadow and Co. read this stuff and the CEO gets a summary of what the current staff morale and flight attendant intentions are regularly. Therefore its probably a good idea not to post everything here. There might even be the odd management troll as well.However I think I can summarise the situation at present, at least in my opinion.
1) Qantas is going to have a go at breaking the FA's union. Thats pretty obvious, otherwise they would have taken steps to control the obvious effects of the London and fixed term hires on staff morale.
The precedents for this are the Wharves dispute in Melbourne (Patrick Partners) and the pilots dispute. Both of these are worth studying.
There are a number of ways that this can play out and I certainly don't know all of them.
The first point you need to know is what you are up against. The Government WILL be briefed by Qantas in advance and you should expect them to aid and abet Qantas managment. You should also expect CASA, ATSB, etc to follow suit if they want to keep their jobs. You can expect the Packer owned press to give you a bucketing as well. My guess would be that the Qantas Board is united as one behind GD, and there will have been very considerable behind the scenes planning for this that will only become apparent when action starts. For example, letting in Air NZ, Singapore, etc for the duration of any dispute.
Battle number one is going to be for public opinion. I've mentioned this previously. If you cannot win this battle then game over - you lose.
In the Patrick partners dispute, the wharfies won the public opinion battle, managment came in with black hooded guys with attack dogs and the public didnt like it. The wharfies then made a very compelling case, ran a brilliant picket line and won the public relations battle. Common sense then prevailed and a negotiated solution was reached that was a win/win for all. The "scabs" who tried to work the docks were reviled by the wharfies and discarded by management by the way.
I guess the question is how good is the FA's union? Are Qantas conditions better than they should be? Are work practices archaic? How do they compare with international standards? I don't know the answer. Maybe you need to decide whats worth fighting for and what is worth giving away. Its up to you.
2) The second point is what can other Qantas staff do about it? Who is on your side? Is the ACTU lined up? What about the Labor Party? Are there any other unions you can call on? My guess is that Lame's and Pilots can do SFA about this unless you act as ONE, like the wharfies did, and when the Airline and Government start throwing writs around, you tell them where to stick it.
My guess is that Qantas WILL use the law in the dirtiest way possible, for example individual writs to each pilot and Lame. The only way you can beat that tactic is to operate as ONE. The minute a few of you break ranks ANYWHERE, you are done for.
In my opinion, the most you FA's can hope for is a negotiated settlement so you had better work out what you want and what you can give to the company. In other words, what is a win/win solution for both of you?
By the way, if I were you, I would immediately get the message out to family and friends NOT to make plans to fly Qantas in the near future because of the threat of industrial disruption and safety concerns over strike breaking staff. That should get management's attention.