I am due to explain this decision about not attending a meeting with Mr Joyce on Friday in an email to members today. So far it reads -
ALAEA not Meeting with CEO on Friday
We’ve been to enough of these meetings to know that it will be a waste of time. They will show the same presentation that is released to the stock exchange, ask if we have any questions and then never answer one of them directly. No new information would be forthcoming. Additionally the ACTU people who know nothing about Aviation will take the lead making irrelevant points and limiting what we could say for the sake of harmony. The ACTU would most likely form a position on our behalf backed by big unions with a handful of Qantas members that would lock us into a position that would be to the detriment of our members. We need to conduct our consultation in different forums free from ACTU influence.
If we were present at the Friday meeting it also would mean that every union was present. If that was the case it would allow Qantas to make public comments about “all the unions understanding our issues”. There needs to be one union absent to prevent allowance of these erroneous comments and that will be us.