From The Age today:
http://www.theage.com.au/news/nation...764953588.html
Qantas' strike breakers
Ben Schneiders
May 15, 2008
QANTAS has devised a secret plan to smash the influence of a powerful airline union, with strike breakers being offered $100,000 for just six months work as aircraft engineers.
The radical plan has come to light on the eve of industrial action by engineers that threatens to bring major disruption to domestic flight schedules from tomorrow.
In a dramatic escalation of an already bitter dispute, Qantas has been quietly recruiting non-union engineers in Asia and the Pacific to act as strike breakers, The Age has learned................................
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The contracts for six months or less offer about $2300 a week to work as aircraft engineers, plus a $40,000 "completion bonus". If paid in full, the strike breakers would receive about $100,000 for six months — double the average rate for an engineer, according to the union.
Union national secretary Steve Purvinas said he expected his members to be "locked out" as a result — as dock workers were in the waterfront dispute. He said Qantas planned to use an alternative workforce of about 100 people to replace the existing 1500 engineers.
Engineers have significant industrial power, as planes are not allowed to fly without their authorisation.
Mr Purvinas said Qantas had been offering contracts to former staff, including many based in Malaysia, since around Christmas. Some had been approached up to a dozen times, he said.
Qantas chief Geoff Dixon last night refused to confirm or deny whether the airline was training strike breakers. "They are our business, our contingencies, they're not for media or anyone else (to know)," he said.
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The dispute centres on the union's demand for a 5%-a-year pay rise. Mr Dixon has said he will not budge from 3%.
Mr Purvinas said the 3% offer failed to match the rising cost of living. The airline says the union reneged on an earlier agreement for pay rises of that amount.
Mr Dixon said this week the airline would not negotiate on its wage policy, which limits pay rises to 3% a year. But Mr Purvinas said the contracts showed that Qantas wanted to break engineers' "culture of commitment to safety", a claim rejected by Mr Dixon.
Qantas has a history of tension with unions. In a recent interview with The Australian Financial Review, Mr Dixon nominated IR as a key issue in his final year running the airline. "The management of this company has contributed far more to its wellbeing and success than any bloody union has," he said.
"It is very important for unions to understand that it's more than just representing your people for a couple of per cent — it is really the long-term future of the industry."
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With MATHEW MURPHY, ANDREW WEST, SCOTT ROCHFORT
There seems to be a sort of inversion going on here that is rather strange and unsettling about the statement highlighted in bold, attributed to Mr. Dixon, from a management perspective.
The contribution of the Board and Senior Management of Qantas to the wellbeing of the company is the making of
sound long term decisions, usually with a time horizon of Five to Ten years or longer when it comes, for example, to the choice of aircraft.
The contribution of Pilots, Cabin Crew and Engineers to the company is the making of
sound day to day decisions as they deliver the companys' product to its customers.
Yet here we have Mr. Dixon apparently imploring the Engineers to take a long term view of the future of the industry.
I also note that the management of Qantas, including apparently Mr. Dixon, appears to be remunerated with annual bonuses.
This, to me, appears to be a simple inversion of time horizons, with management focussing on short term annual bonus driven decision making, while at the same time telling its workforce to take the long view and not worry too much about their terms and conditions today. This is just plain dumb.
Alternatively, if the Engineers did actually take "a long term view" of the industry's future, noting that their pay and conditions have been going backwards since the pay freezes of 9/11, and the continual carping from the Board about Qantas being a "legacy airline" and other doom laden pronouncements, they would have walked. if not run, away from the industry by now.
Perhaps the Qantas Board and management should focus on the big long term picture and encourage suitably remunerated employees to focus on day to day matters, rather than bleakly worrying about how their wages are being outstripped by inflation every year.