Qantas has apparently taken a management page from the NBA, locking out their employees and shutting down the airline in a labor dispute.
Qantas will stop all domestic and international flights from 5pm (AEDT) on Saturday 29 October until further notice. This is in response to the damaging industrial action by three unions – the Australian Licenced Aircraft Engineers Association (ALAEA), the Australian International Pilots Association (AIPA) and the Transport Workers Union (TWU).
Not good for the company and downright horrible for customers. This is going to be ugly.
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The unions are holding a gun to Qantas’ head and they can’t afford to give in as their cost base is already too high compared to their international competitors. If the unions succeed in stopping Qantas from offshoring some of their operations, Qantas won’t last the rest of the decade as an international airline.
It’s an unfortunate tactic but I don’t see Qantas management as having many choices. We can only hope that the Government here sets aside their love of industrial action and intervenes to stop the industrial action on both sides.