Unions mass to clinch Ansett sale
Tues "Sydney Morning Herald"
Unions mass to clinch Ansett sale
By Darren Goodsir, Transport Writer
Unionists will flock to today's meeting of Ansett creditors to vote as a bloc and overwhelm those opposed to the airline's proposed sale.
The ACTU was expected to finally agree early today with the Tesna syndicate over the securing of $240 million in workers' entitlements - paving the way for a union-backed ratification of the sale.
It is not expected that disgruntled frequent flyers, who are being urged to attend and push for a better return on their frozen Global Rewards points, will vote against the deal. That would kill any chance of getting even part of their points haul recognised.
But unionists, believing the vote will be declared on a show of hands, will turn up anyway to show their support for the historic transfer of ownership.
A spokesman for the ACTU said last night that a deal, covering accrued entitlements for about 4000 new workers, was about to be clinched.
"We then expect a large contingent of unionists to be in attendance at the meeting to vote for the sale," he said. "But we have also taken the step of obtaining proxies from workers should there be a need for registering votes."
Groups representing Global Rewards members, who lost 70 billion points that have been valued at only $140 million, will try to gain a representative order - the first step towards launching a class action, aimed at boosting that return to about $1.4 billion.
The administrators, Mark Mentha and Mark Korda, who have presided over the failed airline since September 17 - a few days after it was grounded with crippling debts of $3.6 billion - have booked a 9000-seat arena at Melbourne Park to host what has been billed as the world's biggest assembly of creditors.
The most important topic is the sale of the airline's mainline city operations to Tesna, a team headed by Solomon Lew and Lindsay Fox.
Once that is dealt with, the meeting will be adjourned for 60 days while the deal is taken to the Federal Court for official approval.
The Civil Aviation Safety Authority, which has to issue a new air operator's certificate to Tesna before Friday's first batch of new flights, met the administrators yesterday and declared "the project is on track to commence operations as planned".
"There appear to be no show-stoppers and so long as everything proceeds on schedule, the certificate will be issued," a CASA spokesman said.
However, a deal has still not been reached with Sydney Airport over assigning Ansett's terminal lease. It is expected an interim agreement will be struck pending a more formal contract.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister, John Howard, yesterday confirmed he would not be rushed into scrapping the $10 ticket levy on all domestic flights. But he rejected any suggestion the Government would seek to profiteer from the tax.
"'We can't automatically accept what the Ansett administrators tell us. No disrespect to them, but we have to make our own judgements, " Mr Howard said.
"We don't seek to make a profit out of out of the levy.
"But we certainly don't intend to create a situation where the full extent of the Commonwealth's exposure under the guarantee given is not covered - and that is the principle that is going to guide us.
"If there is any potential over-payment, then it will be returned in different ways and with an emphasis on helping the tourist industry," Mr Howard promised.