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View Full Version : Ode To The Qantas Lame


Turbo 5B
1st Jul 2005, 07:15
Trustee1
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Joined: 23 Jan 2005
Posts: 121


PostPosted: Tue May 17, 2005 6:39 am Post subject: Reply with quote
Clearly then you have no desire to remain "informed" but choose rather to wollow in an environment of self pity and speculation.

Perhaps the only thing that will convince you is the disappearance of heavy maintenance from the airline scene and maybe then YOU can have the piric pleasure of sitting back and saying I told you so while the employees do battle with the reintroduced Transmission of Business clause that took so much work to have removed.

We don't have that luxury its about trying to protect jobs (especially those in marginal areas of the operation) above all else and O/T banking and no transmission of business does that for the time being at least.


No one has a crystal ball to forsee the future but surely a future without a Tansmission of Business clause is better than one that has it included.

Certainly Heavy Maintenance is balanced on a knife edge and which way it falls will only been seen in time but what is certain is that if it is to survive at all it must be able to sell its product intenationally and with its current cost base it cannot do that. If it can't then it and its workers may need the safety of the absence of a transmission of busines provision.

Many LAME's have more than 15 years service so you do the maths and figure out how much money they are gambling with.

Let us hope they never get to find out the hard way.

O/T banking doesn't work in Line because of the crew structuring and the smaller amounts of manpower available on any particular day but in heavy all the people are there all the time irrespective of if an aircraft is in the docking.

Even so it's VOLUNTARY (i.e. no complusion to join)

Much of the difficulty surrounding the airline and its employees is that for the most part they are long serving individuals who have only worked for one employer maybe two (probably both airlines) in their working life. This has led to a workforce that is well insulated from the real world and what it takes in society to earning what most LAME's earn.

Yes were "earn" it but can we achieve it outside.

Maybe you should give it a try sometime and check the job ads.

I don't see too many jumping ship to better paid private sector or non airline jobs do you?

So wallow if you will in your desires and your infalted opinions of what you believe you are "worth" the pilots thought that they were irreplaceable too and they had a labor government in power.

How many of them are back in the industry locally?

Perhaps what we need is a face to face education in the ramifications of the Workplace Relations Act to bring some reality back into the workplace I only hope that everyone is still here to see the new world order.

(Steve Fenech as trustee 1 of the alaea)

sys 4
1st Jul 2005, 19:24
perhaps QANTAS should stop calling itself the spirit of Australia,when all it wishes to do is send Australan jobs overseas.

Or is this the Australia we have become,were we only think of ourselves and what it costs me and what's in it for me me me me me,if so we are headed for big trouble down the line.


Selling out a workforce you are paid to represent will only be to the detriment of your membership and eventually yourself,the person who wrote the above comments should hold their head in shame.

The qantas lame in HM is not overpaid in anyway,they put out a quality product second to none and at a very competative price,as do line and base maint.

Turbo 5B
1st Jul 2005, 23:39
And I think that you'll find that Qantas can't find anywhere cheaper to do their checks at the moment.
You what I would also really like to see?
I'd like to see Qantas put on public record that they will not send any maintenance to any MRO in the world that doesn't have an equivilent or better safety standard than Qantas employees endure.
As for an unreasonable LAME / AME ration in H/M. Much of the work that is carried out in heavy maint can be mundane, however much more of it is of a critical nature regarding removal and inspection, repair of flight controls and engines and doors etc and critical inspection of structures. These jobs require a good level of knowledge and training. To have to certify for these tasks when someone else is doing the job and it not being practical to provide a high level of supervision to unlicenced engineers is something that I would not feel comfortable with.