Sun "Sunday Mail"
Snap strike disrupts Qantas flights
HEATH KELLY
24aug03
HUNDREDS of passengers had their weekend travel plans disrupted by a snap strike at Brisbane airport early yesterday.
About 20 domestic and three international flights were affected when Qantas baggage handlers walked off the job for an hour from 7.35am.
A skeleton staff remained to help with two of the international flights but Qantas passengers were unable to check in baggage at the domestic terminal during the morning rush hour.
Transport Workers Union federal president Hughie Williams said baggage handlers stopped work to attend an urgent meeting in response to Qantas's decision to increase the proportion of casual and contract workers from 15 to 25 per cent of its 34,000 workforce.
Mr Williams said the unions and Qantas were headed for a "collision course" over the decision and he has not ruled out the possibility of more industrial action.
"We are just taking it one day at a time at the moment," he said. "We apologise for the inconvenience we caused to passengers but we hope they are sympathetic to our plight."
Two snap strikes by baggage handlers caused major disruption in Melbourne last week before the Australian Industrial Relations Commission ruled that no further action could be taken.
Mr Williams said he believed up to 40 per cent of staff would eventually be outsourced to labour-hire companies – and that could put passenger safety at risk.
"We are living in the time of terrorism and to get all these labour-hire workers in leaves me feeling a bit funny," he said.
He warned that if Qantas dug in its heels on the decision it could result in another waterfront-style dispute.
Qantas human resources manager Kevin Brown branded the union's stop-work meeting in Brisbane an illegal action.
"Under the current agreement, staff are only supposed to take action during times when it will cause the least disruption," Mr Brown said.
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