More chaos as Qantas dispute set to escalate
Qantas union warning on 'scabs'
Qantas engineers warn the airline not to try employing 'scab' strike breakers.
- QANTAS passengers will face more disruptions and cancellations, with the airline last night informed of a fresh round of rolling strikes by its licensed engineers.
The escalation of the dispute comes as yesterday's industrial action hit services hard, with 35 flights cancelled nationally by 4pm - nearly twice as many as the airline had predicted.
Some 22 flights to and from Melbourne were cancelled. Some passengers suffered delays of up to six hours.
Qantas' executive general manager of people, Kevin Brown, said the strikes were causing "more and more disruptions" but said the airline would get all passengers to their destinations on the day.
There will be some cancellations today and tomorrow, but most of the trouble will be on Friday. The Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association has confirmed there will be a range of stoppages of at least four hours in Sydney, Melbourne, Avalon, Perth and Brisbane.
Association president Paul Cousins said the union was prepared to reconsider Friday's strike action if Qantas met it with a changed offer.
"The ball is in Qantas' court. They can stop this dispute at any time by coming back to the table with a reasonable offer that we can take out to our members and have (it) approved," he said.
The union says Qantas still has not budged from its original offer of a 3% pay rise to engineers. The union is asking for 5%.
Mr Brown said the airline would not meet the union while it was causing considerable disruption to Qantas customers.
Discussions between the ACTU, engineers and Qantas broke down on June 12.
Qantas has started using managers, all of whom it has said are qualified aircraft engineers, to plug the gaps when maintenance workers walk off the job. But Mr Cousins said the union was concerned at the safety compliance of those managers.
He noted that 457 visa laws would prevent Qantas from hiring foreign workers to replace local engineers. "They'll have to use a scab labour force ... which numbers well less than 100 and I don't believe they'll be able to conduct the work that 1500 highly skilled Qantas engineers do around the country."
Jetstar was forced to cancel a flight from Melbourne to Bali last night because it was unable to get mechanical work done in time for the plane's departure.
Passenger Jaz Cooper, who was travelling with two small children, said Jetstar staff simply told him the "plane is stuck in Sydney".
A spokeswoman later confirmed the plane was delayed in Sydney because it needed mechanical work, but industrial action had prevented the work being done in time.
Jetstar paid for accommodation for some interstate passengers, while local residents were simply told to go home and return for the rescheduled flight this morning.
This one I googled this morning, in fact if you Google Qantas News, ALAEA Qantas etc you will get all the media and there are heaps
