A few facts people may or may not be aware of.
Like it or not QANTAS runs CASA, not the other way around. 'QANTAS have the political support and the money to fight anything we would object to in their procedures'.
QANTAS does not invest in Australia unless its in their best interest. With around 50% of ther AVV workforce on 2 year working VISA's, QF can reduce training in both apprentices and LAME's.
On the AVV issue, constant threats of sending work overseas and shutting down Avalon are purely scare tactics. As I said, they dont keep it running out of the kindness in their hearts.
The lack of training justifies QF arguement of less Licenced Engineer involvement in maintenance, crying poor and saying 'We just cant seem to get skilled labor'. Pretty realistic arguement when you dont train.
Licenced Engineers have a large target painted on them at the moment. We cost money due to the professional nature of our work, our job function of finding defects (and costing money to fix them), and 24/7 shift work required to keep our fleet in service.
On that a Grade 3 LAME at QF receives just over $50,000 pa base rate. Not much pay for all that responsibility. I know of Cleaners and Baggage staff who earn more than Heavy Maintenance LAME's including penalties etc.
Wonder why morale is so low.
Maintain the Rage.