... Lucy's Rambles and Rants ...

Here’s some interesting stuff about QANTAS that i’ve heard from my Dad (who’s a baggage handler) and a pilot (who i won’t name for the sake that someone might actually get mad at him).

The pilot are striking because QANTAS is claiming that flights to London and Singapore are not getting enough passengers, when in reality they’re generally the fullest and they’ve already organised to have jetstar take over the cut flights which is why the pilots are striking for jetstar pilots to get the same pay, so then qantas can’t do that to them.

The reason the ‘negotiations’ aren’t going anywhere is because the unions don’t want Qantas turned into a low cost Asia based airline, cut up and destroyed and an Australian icon ruined. The engineers and pilots are concerned about YOUR safety and the reputation and longevity of the Qantas brand which they are all very loyal too.

Alan Joyce was on the Ansett board and destroyed it and he’s doing the same to Qantas, don’t believe the media spin he is putting on things. The company is not in ‘dire’ circumstances as he claims, they have actually posted one of their best profits in the last decade, doubling their profit yearly. Also, if they were really in ‘dire’ circumstances, any decent leader would not have accepted a 71% pay increase like Joyce did on Friday. Yes he took his $5 million dollar pay and then less than 24hrs turned around and grounded the airline…. that’s taking your money and running in a whole new light isn’t it?!

The union strikes have caused a total of 6 hours of delays broken up into 1 hour blocks over months, Joyce’s grounding is going on 24 hours…. The union strikes all were done with 72 hours notice and with least impact to passengers, less than 3% of flights were effected. Joyce’s grounding has obviously affected 100% of flights. If you are pissed about your flight interruptions, Joyce is the man to be pissed at, not the unions!!!

The TWU are also fighting for better job security so that their members can’t just be cut from their jobs and left in the wind.