Australia's Qantas grounding out of proportion: trade unions

Australia's Qantas grounding out of proportion: trade unions

Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) and the Greens on Sunday condemned Qantas' decision to ground all flights, saying that it is totally out of proportion to the bargaining the unions were involved in.

Australia's largest airline company Qantas on Saturday made a sudden announcement to ground its entire flights and locking out its staff due to pay and job security quarrel with the trade unions.

"When Qantas took that action, there was actually very, very, limited, in fact there was no industrial action actually taking place yesterday and none that had been specifically contemplated," ACTU secretary Jeff Lawrence told reporters outside Fair Work Australia in Melbourne on Sunday.

"So the point is the action of Qantas is out of all proportion to the legitimate bargaining process that was going on.... The central point here is the action of Qantas, the action of Qantas management, is absolutely out of proportion to any action that has been engaged in by the union movement.

He said if Qantas had not taken this action on Saturday afternoon, the bargaining process would have continued.

While 447 flights have been canceled, leaving at least 68,000 passengers stranded worldwide, Australian Greens leader Bob Brown described Qantas chief Alan Joyce a "selfish, arrogant" person for grounding the airline's planes.

"This is an arrogant, selfish person who is not loyal to the thousands of Qantas staff, not loyal to the tens of thousands of current Qantas passengers...and not loyal to the millions of Australians who want to see this airline with its unique Australian profile continuing into the future," Senator Brown said on Sunday.

"He may have got his 2.14 million U.S. dollars pay rise on Friday, but he also should have been telling that same (shareholders) meeting he was planning to ground the airline and lock out its good and true workers."

Senator Brown called on the federal government to ensure there was a negotiated settlement between Qantas and the unions representing pilots, licensed engineers, and baggage, ground and catering staff.

The Transport Workers Union federal secretary, Tony Sheldon, also condemned Joyce's actions, saying that it will wreak havoc on the Australian economy.

In respond to the incident, the federal government has called on Fair Work Australia (FWA) to intervene in the dispute.

The emergency hearing is underway from Sunday 2pm (AEST) in FWA in an attempt to resolve the industrial dispute, and to decide whether Qantas acted legally in grounding its entire fleet in response to the ongoing industrial dispute with three unions.

Federal Workplace Relations Minister Chris Evans said FWA must make a determination on the hearing on Sunday.

Editor: Yamei Wang

English.news.cn   2011-10-30 14:01:03 FeedbackPrintRSS
by Vienna Ma

MELBOURNE, Oct. 30 (Xinhua)