FED:Qantas pilots may stop work within month

AAP General News (Australia)
07-19-2011
FED:Qantas pilots may stop work within month

By Lema Samandar

SYDNEY, July 19 AAP - Qantas international long-haul pilots have not ruled out a nationwide
work stoppage as they begin industrial action for the first time in 45 years over job
security.

The Australian and International Pilots Association (AIPA) said its members would begin
30 days of protected industrial action by trying to win the support of the airline's customers.

From Friday, pilots will make "brief and positive" in-flight announcements to passengers
in a campaign to stop any attempt by Qantas to shift their jobs offshore.

AIPA spokesman and Qantas pilot Nathan Safe said captains would talk to passengers
about the safety culture and their skills.

"We'll make it quite clear that we feel that those services are under threat," Mr Safe
told reporters in Sydney on Tuesday.

On long-haul flights from Sydney to London the union message can be expected to be
heard twice, while some domestic pilots will also address their passengers.

The union will also mount a national billboard and internet website campaign to back
its pursuit of a "Qantas flight/Qantas pilot" clause in a new enterprise agreement.

Mr Safe said action had to be taken because management still refused to discuss a written
agreement to ensure pilots' jobs wouldn't be sent offshore.

"We've seen some very minor offshoring numbers to New Zealand, around 100 pilots fly
out of New Zealand under a sham company called Jetconnect that markets and presents itself
as genuine Qantas when in fact it isn't," he said.

"We've seen in Jetstar the setting up of bases in Singapore marketed as Jetstar International,
and we think the next step will ultimately be to set up a Qantas mainline base in Asia,
and that'll see hundreds or thousands of jobs in Australia lost to Asia.

"We think the thin edge to the wedge has begun."

Qantas has rejected the offshoring concerns, saying all Qantas-operated flights will
be flown by the company's pilots.

It says the union campaign is aimed at requiring pilots flying for Qantas affiliates,
including Jetstar, to be paid at the same high rates.

"The claim, if it were ever conceded, would drive up airfares, cost jobs and make Qantas
airlines and routes unprofitable," it said in a statement, adding that it would seek clarification
from the union over the action.

The company says its long-haul pilots are among the best paid in the business, with
an average Boeing 747 captain earning $350,000 a year while its best paid Airbus A380
captain was on $500,000 a year.

The union will have to implement a range of protected industrial actions within 30
days as part of industrial legislation but hopes to do it with little disruption.

"(The approved actions) can be done in very minor ways - we could have one pilot perform
a stop-work action for one minute on one day," Mr Safe said.

"We have no intention or no desire to disrupt Qantas passenger's travel plans."

Asked how likely it was that the Qantas pilots would hold a 48-hour work stoppage,
Mr Safe said: "I can't predict how likely or unlikely it is. It is certainly undesirable."

Last week Qantas engineers stopped work for 60 seconds as part of their ongoing dispute
with the airline.

AAP lxs/klm/jl

KEYWORD: QANTAS WRAP

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