Arbitration
I can't help thinking that QF knows something about the likely outcome of the AIPA vs QF arbitration that we don't.
When you think about the sequence of events leading up to the grounding it begins to make sense..
Firstly, the company has bleated for years now about how QF international has been 'losing hundreds of millions of dollars' and that Jetstar International is an 'amazing business' that conversely makes hundreds of millions of dollars profit.
Long term QF employees know that this is all baloney of course, but nevertheless it is accepted as 'fact' by what passes for the media in this country, and I suspect that the doctored public accounts will be the centrepiece of the companies 'evidence' when the hearings commence.
Secondly, it has been clear that from the get go the company has not been negotiating in good faith, or actually in any sort of faith at all. If you listen to one of the AIPA EA negotiators they tell you that one day a contractual item is almost 'agreed' and then the next day the company negotiating team comes back to the table and says 'nah we are not talking about that item anymore - its off the agenda now'.
The whole negotiating sequence has been designed to set up the scenario for the grounding, and now subsequent arbitration. The company (correctly) surmised that the QF pilot group would vote for PIA, and after it did so the die was cast - shades of '89 in a way.
The last piece of the puzzle (and this is the bit that really worries me) is the make up of the FWA full bench. Google 'Freehills' and FWA and see what comes out.
It is also a matter of record that Justice Guidice was the companies lawyer during 1989.
If you look at the companies log of claims at arbitration it effectively wipes out the LH award - particularly the rostering components, which are moved 'off award' into a separate 'rostering manual' which the company alone can control.
I hope I am wrong, but it seems to me the fix might be in, and the company knows it.