Jabawocky,
I agree the truth is probably half way in the middle.
The TWU outlines a minimum of 12 to load a B747F, the company has cut it back to 3 in efforts to reduce costs.
Company orientated loaders I have spoken to have indicated that 3 is a joke, for the OHS and ontime reasons already outlined. The same loader informed me his team was unable to unload an outside client (vietnam airlines) aircraft the other day becasue there was no trolleys available to put the pallets on! They supposedly had to wait nearly an hour before trolleys were available from other completed jobs.
You can only cut manpower to a certain point before efficiency gains become losses.
MC
