Qantas and the unions

Qantas continues to battle with the unions with both the AIPA and ALAEA, and it looks possible that QF may now be at odds with Ground Staff union the TWA. 

The Pilots union, the AIPA, have given Qantas until close of business tomorrow to respond to their ultimatum.  Qantas have responded unequivocally NO, and as a result industrial action looks set to occur.

"In case you were in any remaining doubt, the company regards your claim currently entitled Operation and Extension of Employment Contract, which you colloquially refer to as your job security claim, as damaging to the interests of Qantas as a threat to the real, long-term job security of 35,000 employees in the Qantas Group," Captain Wilson (Qantas Chief Pilot) said.

The engineers union, the ALAEA, have according to Qantas made demands described as reckless including

"The engineers, for example, have asked for pay increase and perks that will total $160m over the next three years. They've asked for membership of the Qantas Club for all members, they've asked for an extra week's leave, to take it to six weeks, and they've asked for pay and terms of conditions to be increased by 26 per cent as a minimum over three years." Qantas CEO Alan Joyce

It looks like claim and counter claim, punch and counter punch will continue on for some time yet, and if things dont get better soon then we can expect to see protected industrial action from both unions and possibly also from the TWA.  There is a strong likely hood that the public will suffer the consequences of this as flights are cancelled.

Read more about both unions, both claims, both responses and both potential strikes from theaustralian.com.au's aviation writer Steve Creedy HERE and HERE