Dixon`s Agenda....Nothing New
Prior to 1988 being a Qantas Flight Attendant was pretty much a part time occupation......low wages,allowances meant nothing,the Australian $ was managed not floated.Most crew needed a second job to make ends meet.Cashing cheques to enjoy slips was nothing new.The crew demographic was mainly single young men.
Seventy five percent standown was clearly an inefficient use of manpower......enter Roger Burrell,Gerry King and the bid system.Aided and abetted by computers and the Girls Union things were about to change.Firstly the Australian dollar was floated and allowances became worth something.Burrell and King introduced an hourly rate of pay instead of a wage.The girls union(a minority) agreed to this and hey presto no more 75% standown and no more allocated rosters..Enter the bid system,goodbye second job.
1988 was the beginning of the erosion of crew conditions and each CEO since has taken alittle more.Dixon is just another in the Queue.
Lets be quite clear Dixon feels that passengers have been overserviced for years.He has cut the guts out of the Qantas service to such an extent that most crew are embarassed about offering it to passengers.Of course there are also less crew to offer it.Dixon has been emboldened by his sheer good luck...Ansett falls over just when SARS hits.He goes to the crew,"help us out things are crook, accept a wage freeze and an EBA a year in effect,oh,and can we please remove a crew member."We will recognize your contribution in the next EBA.Crew pitched in,foolishly,and agreed.Recognition of effort came in the form of the LHR base.
With Howard in power and amajority inthe Senate it ain't gonna stop here.The bid system,seniority,the slip formula are all under threat.Casualize 25% of your work force,overseas bases,try to push up your attrition rate to around 10%(or more).
It becomes a bus service.If your not happy with the food bring your own.This is Ratty`s brave new world.The Spin Doctors(aka The Qantas marketing dept..Headed by Martin McKinnon)will paint this wonderful picture of a perfect QantasWorld....No delays,excellent service,excellent inflight entertainment(if it works)you get the picture.Total delusion.
To beat this deceitful juggernaut the FAAA and the ASU will have to be extremely astute.So far so good,but its going to get a whole lot worse.Start making financial plans..see your mortgage provider,look at alternative forms of employment for the short to medium term.This is going to be a reasonably short(2Months)but bitter fight,which no one is really going to win.The job and the Airline will never be the same.