what really happens at qantas ??, page-5

mike_au1,

Thanks for the post.

1)I did not say there was no overtime left, if you read my post, it says very little overtime left at QAN any more. As for the redundancies that occurred being welcomed by the staff that took them, I agree, THEY were happy to go, but I do not think the 175 Pilots that were forced to go were too happy, especially after all the hard work it took to get into the joint.

2) I did not say that QAN refuses to come to the table, I said that QAN refuses to come to the bargaining table and offer some kind of pay/condition increase for its staff. QAN might well be at the table but they are certainly not there to negotiate a wage rise if they can help it.

3) I agree with you re Alan Joyce's pay, he should take a drop. In fairness to A. Joyce, he has only been at the helm for a while, let's hope that he can weave a bit of Irish Magic and get QAN profitable again (I still think an Asian move is a very risky strategy, I would rather see them focus on getting QAN mainline back to being one of the great airlines of the world and profitable). Perhaps Mr Joyce would care to explain the still unprofitable Jet Star Asia that has been running now for years. Everyone knows that Jet Star and Jet Star Asia were set up purely as a way of QAN transferring the QF flying over to another cheaper and/or offshore company. This may also provide the vehicle for QAN to get around the legislated Qantas Sale Act.No worries there, just transfer 90% of the flying and then sell Jet Star and/or Jet Star Asia.

4) The cost of living reference does not imply that QAN should automatically pay its workers more. My view on this is that ANY workforce be it QAN or School Teachers, Police, Fire Brigade etc, will ALWAYS ask for more pay whenever a EBA negotiation takes place. Cannot think of one example when a union or organisation representing the worker's has ever said to a company, "no worries, we don't want any extra money, we are not making any pay claim this time around". This probably has something to do with a little thing called "Inflation", which ensures that our Real Income decreases over time without any pay rises taking place. It is not a matter of QAN should pay its workers, it is pretty much a given that they will pay its workers more. The only question really is by how much?

5) The revenue figure is irrelevant, the fact is that QAN made a half billion dollar profit this last financial year. I am sure that there are plenty of other companies out there that are paying dividends on a lot less profit than half a billion dollars. I am sure that 99% of QAN shareholders are dirty about the lack of dividends in recent years. Yes, sad but true, I said years.

6) I would suggest to you Mike that there are NO Engineer's out there earning 175K a year (some 767 Captains are earning less than that). If they are, they must be doing back to back shifts 90% of the time, earning overtime pay for each and every shift.

7) Not up on the EBA 7 issue, I will try to look into that one.

8) Any union that is in a EBA negotiation with a company is entitled to take whatever action they are legally entitled to, at any time, regardless of what other unions are doing. If a TWU action happens to be going at the same time as a Pilots Association action, there is no way they can done for secondary boycotting. It is just a fact that numerous unions/associations have industrial action against QAN at the same time. I saw an interesting interview today though with some leader from the Engineer's union admitting that the unions are indeed talking to each other at this time and in his words "why wouldn't they"?

9) I am not really a betting man Mike so thanks for the offer. Whether you have more shares than me or whether I have more than you is irrelevant. What is relevant to all shareholders is the fact that QAN has been on a deeply disturbing downward spiral for too long, and the skies ahead don't look too clear either. The company is really struggling to focus on being the best "Premium Airline" that it can be. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that there are too many airlines within the Qantas group to run.

IMO, QAN would be best served if it were to go back to basics and focus on doing the things that it has always done well, perhaps then we would see a turn around in the SP and a return on our investments???

Cheers to all holders,

Surfrat.