An excellend article from Janet Albrechtsen from the Australia. She has put into writing what I have observed over the last 15 years. The problem with our QAN is that after becoming public, the workers still treat it like a public company.
GET set for chaos at our airports as we head back to the bad old days of union mischief.
In April, unions threatened "guerilla warfare" against Qantas right across the globe if the airline brought in managers to replace striking employees. Then, last week, Qantas engineers and pilots threatened strikes in response to the restructuring plans announced by Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce.
Bring it on. For too long, unions at Qantas have got their way. If this is the modern face of the union movement, then unions have not yet secured a sensible, responsible place for themselves in the 21st-century workplace.
They have learned nothing from Ansett's demise 10 years ago, after years of union-dominated cost structures. And they have learned nothing from the broader union movement's diminishing membership.
Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar. Related Coverage Qantas workers criticise changes Qantas says it's not carrying rest Herald Sun, 1 day ago Unions angry at Qantas job cuts Adelaide Now, 7 days ago Unions fear Qantas will cut and run The Daily Telegraph, 7 days ago Unions vow to fight Qantas job cuts Courier Mail, 7 days ago Qantas job cuts 'darkest day' for airline The Australian, 8 days ago End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar. In a case of industrial deja vu, get ready too for all sorts of claims thrown at the flying kangaroo, most of them highly emotional and economically irrational and some of them downright misleading and reckless.
To his credit, the federal Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Anthony Albanese, made clear this was a commercial decision by Qantas. In the 2009 white paper, Albanese said the airline industry would best rebound from economic turbulence by innovating and expanding.
Could the minister have a word with his party's core base, the commercially illiterate unions that want to stop Qantas from innovating and expanding?
Most disappointing is the pilots' union. They are called the Australian and International Pilots Association as if to suggest an "association" is more refined than your average union. Sadly, its highly educated members are not so refined, choosing cheap emotion when they should know better. They should know that for much of this century, well before September 11, 2001, the airline business has been in a state of financial crisis, suffering billions of dollars in losses. Numbers say it all. With more than 82 per cent of customers choosing an airline other that Qantas to fly overseas, it's clear that people buy tickets based on price, not brand.
The international side of the Qantas business is being dragged down by cost structures a hefty 24 per cent higher than rivals, by competition from airlines run by oil-rich governments and by geographical challenges.
Our national carrier is an end-of-the-line airline, not one operating from the world's major hubs. So the decision by Qantas to cut unprofitable routes and to build two new airlines in major Asian hubs using 110 new narrow body aircraft makes eminent commercial sense. In fact, it's good old common sense.
Unencumbered by logic, the unions are the biggest drag on our flying kangaroo. Take, for example, the pilots' union demand that all pilots on Jetstar and other Qantas affiliate airlines be paid the same as Qantas pilots. This is sheer economic lunacy. Jetstar operates in the very different, low-cost leisure market. The low-cost airline has excelled because it has negotiated different enterprise agreements with its staff that enable it to compete favourably with other low-cost airlines.
Now check out the terms of your average Qantas pilot. They receive higher salaries than most long-haul pilots across the globe and fly fewer hours, receive six weeks' leave and 25 sick days. They get cheap flights and upgrades to the pointy end of the plane. But they want more - for starters, a 2.5 per cent wage increase for the next three years, free international economy tickets, upgradable to seats closer to the cockpit and $1 million to fund their union bosses each year.
The pilots' greedy demands will endanger the low-cost Jetstar business and burden Qantas with costs its international airline cannot afford. Simple mathematics tell you this is not good for customers or jobs.
Consider also the deceptive claims from the highly educated engineers' union that also likes to use the more highfalutin label of an "association". Their emotive claim for "job security" is a demand to entrench outdated and inefficient maintenance practices that most other airlines have long since reformed. To get a sense of the backward-looking unions, the engineer's union demands would prevent Qantas from updating its maintenance in line with new regulations set down by Australia's Civil Aviation and Safety Authority regulations.
And don't fall for the unions' wicked use of emotional tricks. Steve Purvinas, the boss of the engineers' union, said last month: "Alan Joyce does not want Australian aircraft engineers inspecting aircraft because we find things wrong with them; he'd rather take his chances that nothing goes wrong at 40,000 feet."
Apart from ignoring the crucial fact that 90 per cent of maintenance of Qantas aircraft occurs in Australia, is Purvinas really making the knuckleheaded claim that the 82 per cent of passengers who travel overseas on an airline apart from Qantas are willing to take their chances that nothing goes wrong at 40,000 feet? This arrant nonsense highlights why the union movement has only itself to blame for its slow demise.
Try this on for size, too. The pilots' union and the engineers' union have raised questions about the $200m loss suffered by Qantas International. And hot on their heels, the headline-hunting independent senator, Nick Xenophon, wants "forensic scrutiny" of the accounts.
Does big corporation now equal big corporate liar? These are seriously reckless accusations given the legal obligations and penalties imposed on those who mislead the Australian Stock Exchange.
One need only look at the Qantas share price today to fathom the challenges facing Qantas. Recall the takeover bid at $5.45 in 2007 rejected by large shareholders as inadequate. Yesterday, Qantas shares closed at $1.54. The world has changed and Qantas is trying to change to survive.
Desperate for attention, a few independent MPs are spurring on the unions. Last week, independent Queensland member Bob Katter said 5000 jobs would be lost. Incorrect. Qantas will cut 1000 jobs as part of its restructure.
Then Katter played the parochial card, arguing for new legislative restrictions on Qantas and pointing the finger at the "people from overseas" such as "Mr Cleverness" at Qantas (Joyce is Irish-born) and Gail Kelly (who hails from South Africa) at Westpac.
God forbid, Mr Katter, that we should encourage the movement of people and trade in the 21st century.
The same ill-conceived brand of Katter economics once argued in favour of so-called "national champions" to justify governments running airlines and taxpayers picking up the tab. It failed dismally: governments have no idea how to run efficient businesses.
Even dumber in economic terms is the prospect of fencing in Qantas with new demands to stop the airline growing its business overseas. As the experts will tell you, that's a sure way to turn a national carrier into a national basket case.
(20min delay)