Originally Posted by
JamieMaree
To B772:
Australian Airlines (TAA) and all Ansett companies
To Aerial Perspective:
There was no strike. There was a dispute and nearly all of the pilots resigned their jobs!
To both:
When those Airlines started rebuilding and recruiting pilots on individual contracts, duty travel entitlements was not included in the contracts... deliberately. The Airlines could then dictate what happened. Economy with a possible J class upgrade but down the list. Flight attendants still had their first/business entitlement. For the sake a accuracy, the individual contract quickly became the award.
Well, you can twist the English language if you wish but it remains that Pilots who were already well paid asked for a nearly 30% wage increase and did it in the lead up to Christmas for maximum impact. They did it by WITHDRAWING THEIR LABOR during certain hours of the day - i.e outside 0900 to 1700 (business hours).
Whether you think so or not, this is the very essence of what a 'strike' is - withdrawal of labor during a dispute. Just because they were prepared to work 'as normal' for 8 of the 24 hours in a day did not make it anything less than a strike.
Then, in a stunningly dumb 'strategy' they on the advice of their industrial leadership resigned en masse.
The airlines couldn't believe their luck.
This is the thing and where they lost most of the Australian public who were at that time struggling and weren't interested when they couldn't get a 5% pay increase in someone asking for 30% (just under actually in total).
It was a strike. Calling it anything else is just being pedantic.
Despite what you say, working at Ansett, Pilots still got upgraded on just about every flight. So did TAA/Qantas Domestic Pilots.