BY SUE BOLTON
In a move described by many delegates to the ACTU congress as having echoes of the 1998 waterfront dispute, Qantas on August 19 provocatively introduced three labour-hire workers from the company Blue Collar to work as baggage handlers at Melbourne airport.
Baggage handlers, members of the Transport Workers Union (TWU), refused to work beside the contractors. After walking off the job, the unionists immediately surrounded the baggage handling terminal to ensure the labour-hire workers wouldn't be able to work. Within an hour, the labour-hire workers were ordered out by Qantas. Around 26 planes were delayed by the baggage handlers' industrial action.
It was later discovered that Qantas had a group of ready-trained labour-hire workers waiting in a nearby hotel to take the jobs of unionised workers. Qantas is believed to have trained non-union workers to be baggage handlers at a secret location in Melbourne. The TWU also believes that Qantas has trained 14 non-union workers in Los Angeles.
TWU Victorian branch secretary Bill Noonan condemned Qantas for carrying out a provocative act in breach of a three-year agreement to not to employ non-permanent employees. He said that he believed that Qantas was "testing the water" for plans to use non-union workers trained in Los Angeles to do the jobs of TWU members but at lower rates of pay. The TWU is angry that the company has taken this action just a little under a month after redundancies at Melbourne airport.
Qantas and the TWU have been in negotiations for nearly a month over the company's attempt to reduce the number of permanent workers it employs. The airline wants to replace its permanent work force with labour-hire workers as permanent workers retire or resign.
A meeting of Qantas union delegates at Melbourne airport on August 20 resolved to work together to support all Qantas workers in opposing the contracting out of Qantas jobs.
Also on August 20, the Industrial Relations Commission ordered baggage handlers to cease strike action. However, later in the day, 800 baggage handlers, cleaners and caterers called another snap strike at Melbourne airport when TWU members refused to work with 50 Qantas managers and casual workers hired to provide flight services. The strike ended after four hours.
The IRC then granted Qantas the right to use labour-hire workers at Melbourne airport until the end of August. Commissioner Brendan Eames denied a request by the TWU that Qantas suspend its plan to introduce a further nine labour-hire workers. Instead, he ordered Qantas to use 12 labour-hire workers in an isolated work station until the commission's next hearing on August 28.
Qantas, which is Australia's fourth largest private employer, plans to convert up to a 40% of its 34,000 permanent jobs to casual and contract positions over the next two years. Currently, around 15% of its workforce is casual.
The August 20 Sydney Morning Herald reported that it had obtained a document which revealed that Qantas wanted the right to employ up to 45% of ramp services staff at Sydney airport on non-union labour-hire contracts.
From Green Left Weekly, August 27, 2003.
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