Qantas to cut maintenance workers
BY: STEVE CREEDY, AVIATION WRITER From: The Australian March 06, 2012 12:00AM
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The Qantas Melbourne maintenance facility in Tullamarine is one of three plants at risk of being closed. Picture: Stuart McEvoy. Source: The Australian
QANTAS expects labour demand at its heavy maintenance facilities to drop by 60 per cent over the next five years, the equivalent of more than 870 jobs, as it retires aircraft and brings in new maintenance systems and planes that require less work.
The airline last month announced plans to consolidate heavy maintenance facilities in Brisbane, Melbourne and Avalon, near Geelong, which collectively employ 1460 workers.
It is consulting with unions about its options, but this is the first time it has indicated how far it may need to shrink its heavy maintenance operations.
Details that emerged last week indicate Qantas has now narrowed down the possibilities to three options, the most dramatic of which is to close down two of the bases and consolidate the work at either Melbourne, Brisbane or Avalon.
Melbourne, which concentrates on maintenance of Boeing 737s and employs about 400 workers, is seen as the least likely to survive.
The other options would see the consolidation of Boeing 737 work now done at Melbourne into the newer Brisbane facility, with 747 work continuing at Avalon or both 767 and 747 maintenance taking place at Avalon.
"The problem we are trying to solve is an anticipated 60 per cent reduction in labour demand over the next five years," Tony Lowery, the airline's head of heavy maintenance, told staff in a message.
"The criteria we are examining to help us make the best choice include: ongoing operating costs in the context of keeping existing heavy maintenance on shore, capital costs, and ability to support new systems of maintenance."
Any job losses from heavy maintenance consolidation would be in addition to the 500 jobs Qantas announced it was shedding last month. Another 600 catering jobs will go if its catering division is sold.
The maintenance review has sparked a lobbying war between Victoria and Queensland as the two states fight to keep their facilities open.
Victorian unions have urged the Baillieu government to try to keep the jobs in that state, and Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has threatened legal action if the airline tries to close down its Brisbane facility before 2014.
The airline has already said it will not be doing heavy maintenance on the Airbus A380 in Australia, and expects it will be well into the next decade before it has to make a decision on its bigger fleet of Boeing 787 Dreamliners.
Change for an improvement in maintenance would be one thing. This is just an ideological race to the bottom for the cheapest/nastiest option possible. And a union busting exercise. Pure and simple.
The vast 737 experience that is about to be flushed away by the bean counters through, what would appear to be the imminent demise of QF Heavy Maint Tulla, is a disgrace. And the industry as a whole will be all the poorer for it.
