Just received this from a mate...
Just received the email below from a fellow LAME. Asked me to get it out there, so can anyone/everyone out there do some fact checking, amend where necessary, copy and paste this into an email and send it to everyone in their inbox?
Hi (names deleted to protect the innocent)
You may have heard the stoush in the media between Geoff Dixon and the union representing me, the ALAEA, and the ACTU.
I’d like to correct some of Geoff Dixon’s lies.
GD: "This morning in the four hours in Sydney we got just about every flight away with very slight delays,''
Fact: 56% on time. That’s down from 80 – 90%.
Tracked: 390
Departed: 380
Cancelled: 10
Delayed:
15-30 mins: 81
30-45 mins: 28
45+mins: 57
Source: http://www.flightstats.com/go/Airline/airlineScorecard.do?airline=qf&airlineQueryDate=2008-05-29.
Since when is a 45+ minute delay “very slight?” If you were 45 minutes late for a meeting, would you say, “Sorry, I’m very slightly late”?
Actual examples of “45+ minute delays”:
QF43 to Auckland: departed 2hrs 10 min late.
QF11 to LA: departed 7hrs 40min late.
QF31 to Singapore: departed 3hrs 50min late.
QF1 to London: departed 4+ hours late.
GD: “Qantas chief executive officer Geoff Dixon says most of the engineers earn $130,000 a year and are not the working poor.”
Fact: The most that many engineers can ever hope to earn is around $130,000, earned through up to 40 years service and/or extensive training. Only those engineers in the highest pay grade earn that much. Qantas has limited the number of engineers in that pay grade to only 5% of the total number, or 80 of a total 1600 engineers!
Fact: An engineer at Qantas starts on $53,000 p.a. base pay, with up to 44% in shift penalties and rostered overtime on top of that for the joy of working 12 hour days and nights in all weather, weekends and public holidays. That’s $76,000 p.a. total. By comparison, Virgin Blue and Jetstar, Qantas’ “low cost carrier” are paying their entry level engineers over $105,000 p.a.!
Fact: Based on information collated by the ALAEA (of which the vast majority of engineers are members), the average wage for a Qantas engineer is around $89,000, including shift penalties – still way behind the competition and far behind Mr Dixon’s claim of $130,000.
GD: “Since 2001 these engineers have had a 37 per cent pay increase overall”
Fact: Since 2001, we have had pay rises of 12%. In 2001 & 2002 we took an 18 month pay freeze. We have not had a pay-rise for two and a half years now. In 2003 – 2006 we received Geoff Dixon’s standard 3% pay rise. Four years X 3% = 12%. This is far behind both inflation, pay-rises received by comparative industries such as the utilities, transport and mining industries, and the broader community which has enjoyed unprecedented wage growth in the last decade.
GD: "If you take into account the offer that we made to them, the union accepted a deal with us in January, which was 3 per cent [pay rise] plus 1 per cent superannuation. They then decided not to put it to their membership and walked away from it."
Fact: The ALAEA spent over 15 months negotiating a deal which the union agreed to present to the members in the form of a summary, or “Heads of Agreement” (HOA). They presented the HOA to the members in a series of meetings around the country and recommended that we voted for it on the grounds that it was the best Enterprise Bargaining Agreement (of a total of eight) that had ever been negotiated. The members overwhelmingly rejected the HOA and raised serious concerns about it. I know, because I was at the meetings. Further, when the full text of the Agreement was presented to the union executive, the almost 100 page document differed in key areas to what had been negotiated, agreed and presented to the members in the HOA - a clear breach of trust. That’s when the ALAEA walked away from the offer.
Please do not believe this man. He has been very effectively crying wolf for years. He is a former journalist and knows his way around the media. He also wields a large advertising account which media corporations are afraid to lose if they do not give him positive coverage.
Please keep these Facts in mind whenever you see Geoff Dixon in the media.
Cheers
(Name deleted to protect the innocent)