Baggage Handlers Industrial Action
 

Airport baggage handlers are demanding that all passenger bags be limited to 20 Kgs. It is claimed that far too many handlers are being injured handling international passenger bags at Australian ports. Any comments?

I love it!

I've been out of the shipping industry for some time now but I remember some of the larger bulk carriers that traded to Australian ports, had to have been fitted with "Australian Ladders".

This meant that the ladders down to the holds had to have a stop off platform half way down so they could have a rest!!

Precious things

Who would volunteer to tell Naomi Campbell?

Gannet Fan,

Your absolutely right. It does provide a place to rest.

IMHO a climb up or down using a 10+ metre vertical ladder is not for the faint hearted. A mis step or unsatisafactory hand grip means your next contact with steel is more than likely going to be fatal.

Maybe the next thing is that all bulk freight will also be required to be broken down into 20 kg units as well for the convenience of the loaders.

The fact is that the load to be handled is whatever the customer presents. I quite understand that items of 30 kg etc are heavy but there should be the necessary equipment and staff training on hand to deal with it appropriately, whatever is required. Not just a "can't shan't won't" attitude.

I think some of the claims in the media are being misrepresented, I don't believe it is about cutting pax entitlements, but rather reducing the weight of individual bags ..... And you'd have to agree that handling perhaps a minimum of 1000 bags on a normal shift, there is going to be body fatigue, so reducing the maximum weight of a single piece of luggage to 20kg may help to allieviate this - particularly in non containerised aircraft, where the loaders are on hands and knees in the hold. Also, with non containerised aircraft, the luggage is handled at least three times - from the belt to trolley, from the trolley to loader, from the loader to be positioned in the hold. Containerised is just the once - belt to container.

The piece on ACA tonight was interesting with Tracy swinging a 32kg bag single handedly. I'm sure we could all do this .... but try doing it 20 or 30 times in succession to get a feel for what a whole shift would be like.

Plenty of for's and against's, but I think the motivation behind the idea has to be reported for what it is - an attempt to reduce workplace injury - rather than as an opportunity for the airlines to cut pax entitlements. It would just mean, if for example you were a QF Club member travelling economy, that you take 2 bags to make up the 30kg allowance. If you're First class, as the example has been in the media, you currently can't take your 40kg allowance in one bag (32 is the max accepted), so you take 2 bags.

Granted, it would take the "its all about me" travelling public some time to adjust - however the vast majority of pax who can read and understand their T&C and are quite happy to comply with a minimum of fuss would not have too many dramas.

So, there you go, an attempt to "balance" the argument!

Cheers
Prado.

Baggage Weights
 

Agree with your "balanced" view Prado and I do not think I ever suggested any other reason for the TWU wanting the max 20KG per piece to apply. Interesting to note however that you claim 1000 bags per shift when the TWU's Mr Sheldon stated 600 per shift. Also, most baggage on wide-body international aircraft does go into igloo containers. It is only the rear cargo hold on a B747, for instance, which has loose loaded baggage.

I would love to hear what the "wheat stacker's" of my childhood would say, considering they used to scurry from truck bed to the top of wheat stacks with a bag of wheat across their shoulders, all day long. They still had enough energy left to enjoy a few ales and front up again the next day.

:{ Poor little bag snatchers. :{ 20 Kgs is far too much :{ After all, they've got bigger beer guts to carry around now. :{ Like their moccasin shod missus's:{

gee 'spaz' I hope they don't find out who you are, I think yr bags would be thrown clear across the planet instead of just across the room for fun !:E
OH&S are very real issues but they probably get more injuries from cutting their fingers from faulty zips !:E




CW

Good Points Prado,

I don't mind sensible revisions to maximum individual baggage weights, but please give us out here in SLF land time to adapt before it becomes mandatory.
I somethimes have to travel with test kit in its flight case which has been carefully designed to come in at just on 30kg. I can't see my employer putting A$90K pieces of equipment in just a soft bag to get the weight down to the 20k limit.

How does this proposed limit compare with other countries? It will make things interesting for international arrivals with connecting flights.

D.

The figure of 1000 per shift was based on handling probably 5 or 6 flights in a shift .... I don't really know what they'd deal with, but that number seemed like a good guesstimate.

737's are also non containerised, and (again) guessing that they'd make up a fair proportion of domestic baggage handler's day for QF & certainly for DJ crew.

Cheers
Prado.

This was an issue many moons ago when I worked on QF ramp so the company installed the "magic carpet" system in the 737 acrft holds. If the system was U/S then the number of bags to be loaded in that hold was limited.
On wide bodied aircraft there were always issues with loading hold 5 (bulkhold) and It was generally avoided if possible for OH&S reasons.
I'm assuming the problem is in the baggage room where containers are manually loaded and not the physical loading of the aircraft.

What's wrong with two people lifting one bag?

Obviously some of the people posting here have never had a back injury. Back injuries are often likely to reoccur, and not unusual to be damaged permanently. If so, these people would be supporting what the TWU wants, until Qantas get better equipment. Remember, that's what they're saying, its the lack of training and equipment by Qantas, if Qantas had invested in more specialised equipment and better training, it may not be an issue now. The other thing to remember is thats its not just the weight that causes back injuries, the repetitive motion of lifting and twisting is a big cause of back pain, so something doesn't necessarily need to be heavy to cause damage either.

That ACA story tonight was disgraceful, a good reason to turn off that show in future. Tracy simply wouldn't listen to fact. And that suitcase can't have had 20kg in it, as if an 8 year old could lift that weight so effortlessly! And Tracey did surprising well with the 32kg...

Anyway, long story short, these guys aren't soft, the fact is if you've had a bad back injury you wouldn't wish it upon your worst enemy.

As reported by News Ltd.

QANTAS management says it will not bow to pressure from baggage handlers to lower the maximum weight of bags from 32kg to 20kg.

Baggage handlers will decide today whether to take industrial action to implement a union ban on baggage weighing more than 20kg.

Workers voted yesterday to impose the bans on all flights and have been waiting for a response from management.

Qantas today replied by saying it complied with all industry standards of baggage handling and would not be reducing allowances.

"Qantas meets all national and international standards relating to the handling of heavy bags," it said.

"We have clear policies and procedures, including heavy bag identification, appropriate manual handling techniques and weight limitations.

"We have implemented mechanical solutions that alleviate heavy lifting, staff rotation solutions and manual handling training.

"We will continue to work constructively with our staff on this issue (but) we do not anticipate any impact on our flight schedule or change to check-in allowances."

Asked if Qantas would reduce individual bag allowances, a spokesman said: "Not at this stage".

Qantas said time lost because of injuries in the airport had decreased every year for the past four years.

Big difference between number of people injured as opposed to injuries accepted by Qantas Workers Compensation Dept and logged as LTIs.

Anyone who has dealt with the dept in question will be well aware of their reputation.

Boeing and Airbus should sell accesories with their aircraft hire Tim Shaw to sell the aircraft on dannoz direct, " But wait theres more "
if you purchase your boeing 747-400 withing the next hour, you will also get free ROBOT baggage handlers to replace those old complaining ones!! for only 49.95 BUT wait .. theres more are you being affected by the pilot shortage if you pay using your Visa or Mastercard, you will receive 1 free pilot per order !!! :E
(sorry im bored) :E

im sure this could be one solution to fixing it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOFRI...eature=related

:E

I wonder what the average bag weighs? :hmm:

average 'bag' weighs? well according to CASA's offical estimate for the purpose of weights, 77 kg's !:E



CW