On October 29, 2011 Qantas CEO Alan Joyce grounded the entire airline and prepared to lock out its entire workforce. Across the globe, thousands of passengers were inconvenienced and left stranded as Qantas flights came to a grounding halt. This was all done with no notice to workers or customers and it was one of the worst acts of industrial sabotage taken by the Australian capitalist ruling class.
The Qantas dispute began in response to worker demands for a 5% pay increase and job security against outsourcing. The three unions involved are the Transport Workers Union (covering baggage handlers), the Australian & International Pilots Association, and the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association.
Qantas management claims that it cannot grant the workers’ demands because it must cut costs in order to remain “competitive”. However Qantas is a very profitable company. In 2010 Qantas made a profit of $552 million dollars, and its low-budget subsidiary, Jetstar, made a profit of $169 million. Management executives and shareholders have been enjoying huge bonuses and dividends. Just one day before the grounding, CEO Alan Joyce received a 71% pay increase to bring his yearly salary up from $2 million to $5 million p.a. It is outrageous that a CEO can get a $3 million pay increase, yet workers are denied a pay increase of just $1 an hour under the pretext that the company needs to “cut costs” in order to be more competitive.
The massive profits enjoyed by Qantas CEOs and its shareholders come from the exploitation of the labour of its workers. The actions of Qantas show the true nature of the capitalist system: when companies are not performing workers have to bear the brunt in the form of redundancies and pay cuts, but when companies are doing well workers have to fight tooth and nail for a tiny part of the profit.
Qantas argues that it had no choice but to ground the airline because industrial action was “crippling” the company. However this claim was totally false – in the last seven months only six hours of work had been lost through short work stoppages by the baggage handlers. The engineers suspended all industrial action for three weeks and the pilots’ only form of industrial action was to wear red ties to work in protest against outsourcing. The workers’ demands were reasonable and their level of industrial action was minor; however management refused to give an inch and reacted by shutting down the entire airline, locking out workers and disrupting travel across the world.
The Qantas grounding achieved the perfect result for Alan Joyce and Qantas management: it made all industrial action illegal, and absolved Qantas of its obligation to negotiate with the union. This was done by forcing Fair Work Australia (an Australian government industrial relations institution) to intervene in the dispute. FWA ordered the termination of all industrial action and gave both parties 21 days to reach an agreement. If an agreement is not reached between the parties, FWA gets to make the decision. All industrial action from both sides is now declared illegal but the workers are in a weaker position because they are forced to bargain with hard line Qantas management. All Qantas has to do is not negotiate.
This action by Qantas management is an attempt to break our unions, our ability to be a collective, our ability to be strong. This is an assault on all workers. The decision to stall all negotiations, ignore modest demands and lock out the workers is part of a global calculated push by the capitalist ruling class to outsource the workplace and break the unions by shifting its workforce to countries where workers are less organised. This is not an isolated case. It is part of a push by airlines in the region to drive down the wages and conditions of their workers. Philippines Airlines, Garuda Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Kuwait Airlines and Japan Airlines are all attempting to make workers work longer for less.
This represents a race to the bottom. The only winners are the capitalists who will make even bigger profits.
We demand equal pay for equal work, no matter what city, what state or what country it is in.
Industrial action is the only power workers have to force companies to negotiate meaningfully and accept workers’ demands. We must link these struggles internationally.
Workers change the world
On October 29, 2011 Qantas CEO Alan Joyce grounded the entire airline and prepared to lock out its entire workforce. Across the globe, thousands of passengers were inconvenienced and left stranded as Qantas flights came to a grounding halt. This was all done with no notice to workers or customers and it was one of the worst acts of industrial sabotage taken by the Australian capitalist ruling class.
The Qantas dispute began in response to worker demands for a 5% pay increase and job security against outsourcing. The three unions involved are the Transport Workers Union (covering baggage handlers), the Australian & International Pilots Association, and the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association.
Qantas management claims that it cannot grant the workers’ demands because it must cut costs in order to remain “competitive”. However Qantas is a very profitable company. In 2010 Qantas made a profit of $552 million dollars, and its low-budget subsidiary, Jetstar, made a profit of $169 million. Management executives and shareholders have been enjoying huge bonuses and dividends. Just one day before the grounding, CEO Alan Joyce received a 71% pay increase to bring his yearly salary up from $2 million to $5 million p.a. It is outrageous that a CEO can get a $3 million pay increase, yet workers are denied a pay increase of just $1 an hour under the pretext that the company needs to “cut costs” in order to be more competitive.
The massive profits enjoyed by Qantas CEOs and its shareholders come from the exploitation of the labour of its workers. The actions of Qantas show the true nature of the capitalist system: when companies are not performing workers have to bear the brunt in the form of redundancies and pay cuts, but when companies are doing well workers have to fight tooth and nail for a tiny part of the profit.
Qantas argues that it had no choice but to ground the airline because industrial action was “crippling” the company. However this claim was totally false – in the last seven months only six hours of work had been lost through short work stoppages by the baggage handlers. The engineers suspended all industrial action for three weeks and the pilots’ only form of industrial action was to wear red ties to work in protest against outsourcing. The workers’ demands were reasonable and their level of industrial action was minor; however management refused to give an inch and reacted by shutting down the entire airline, locking out workers and disrupting travel across the world.
The Qantas grounding achieved the perfect result for Alan Joyce and Qantas management: it made all industrial action illegal, and absolved Qantas of its obligation to negotiate with the union. This was done by forcing Fair Work Australia (an Australian government industrial relations institution) to intervene in the dispute. FWA ordered the termination of all industrial action and gave both parties 21 days to reach an agreement. If an agreement is not reached between the parties, FWA gets to make the decision. All industrial action from both sides is now declared illegal but the workers are in a weaker position because they are forced to bargain with hard line Qantas management. All Qantas has to do is not negotiate.
This action by Qantas management is an attempt to break our unions, our ability to be a collective, our ability to be strong. This is an assault on all workers. The decision to stall all negotiations, ignore modest demands and lock out the workers is part of a global calculated push by the capitalist ruling class to outsource the workplace and break the unions by shifting its workforce to countries where workers are less organised. This is not an isolated case. It is part of a push by airlines in the region to drive down the wages and conditions of their workers. Philippines Airlines, Garuda Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Kuwait Airlines and Japan Airlines are all attempting to make workers work longer for less.
This represents a race to the bottom. The only winners are the capitalists who will make even bigger profits.
We demand equal pay for equal work, no matter what city, what state or what country it is in.
Industrial action is the only power workers have to force companies to negotiate meaningfully and accept workers’ demands. We must link these struggles internationally.
Workers change the world