I have double trouble. :(

Booked to fly in 4 weeks to Finland via Bangkok!

Qantas is dying....

Bangkok is drowning.....

Pray for me

Seems like the union's push for job security will have them all losing their jobs soon enough.

Bloody heck, I made the above post before I surfed the news websites. Biggest game of 'Chicken' I've ever seen.

Thewest.com.au

UPDATE 2.50pm: Qantas has grounded its entire domestic and international fleets indefinitely and announced the lockout of all employees covered by the agreements that are currently in dispute.

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said the groundings would take place immediately and announced the lockout will begin at 5pm Monday.

“We are locking out until the unions withdraw their extreme claim and reach agreement with us,” Mr Joyce told a press conference on Saturday.

Mr Joyce said his hand had been tipped by the impossible demands of the three unions.

“They are trashing our strategy and our brand,” he said.

“They are deliberately destabilising the company and there is no end in sight.”

If the industrial action continued, Qantas would have no choice but to shut down its business “part by part”, the chief executive said.

He believed the lockout and grounding of the fleet was the only effective avenue at his disposal to bring about a solution to the dispute.

Mr Joyce said he was sorry the course of action had become necessary but the ball was now in the unions' court.

“They must decide just how badly they want to hurt Qantas, their members ... and the travelling public,” he said.

The airline will offer hotel accommodation and alternative flights to those who are mid-journey and can't get home when the grounding takes effect.

And there will be refunds and ticket transfers available to passengers whose flights are cancelled.

Qantas said it would keep passengers updated on the situation via its website, Facebook page and Twitter.

The airline said today there were 64 aircraft in the air, 36 domestic and 28 international carrying more than 7000 passengers.

These aircraft will complete the sectors they are operating and will then be grounded.

In total 108 aircraft will be grounded in 22 airports around the world.

The airline says, 13,305 passengers are booked to travel on Qantas planes from overseas ports to Australia in the next 24 hours.

About 1310 international passengers may be at international airports now waiting for their flight to depart.


Follow thewest.com.au on Twitter

I was supposed to fly with Qantas in a fortnight with work.
I cannot rely on Qantas in the future. What a shame.

RIP Qantas this will cost you dearly.

I'm all for unions, to a point. They do make pay negotiations easier for the individual and the company when they negotiate for all. But somtimes I think unions lose sight of the bigger picture, the company is there for the benefit of the shareholders that invest, not the employers that work for them.

Anyone who works for a living that thinks their employer owes them anything more than wages and accrued leave entitlements are kidding themselves, it doesn't matter how long you have worked for the company they ultimately owe you nothing more than your next pay check.

Chris6791 said...

I'm all for unions, to a point. They do make pay negotiations easier for the individual and the company when they negotiate for all. But somtimes I think unions lose sight of the bigger picture, the company is there for the benefit of the shareholders that invest, not the employers that work for them.

Anyone who works for a living that thinks their employer owes them anything more than wages and accrued leave entitlements are kidding themselves, it doesn't matter how long you have worked for the company they ultimately owe you nothing more than your next pay check.

And similarly I don't owe my employer anything other than to do my job properly and professionally in return for that pay check. When it comes time to negotiate a pay rise, I certainly don't owe it to my company to make things easy for them. I do owe it to myself to negotiate hard in my best interest, same as they do for their best interest.

Gizmo said...

choco said...

Queensland and Northern Territory Air Services RIP

Killed by the Unions.......

Often Unions lose sight of the big picture without a company to employ, there is no need for a Union.

agree and good on Q for sticking up for there rights,do the unions know how to run a business other than collect membership money.**** were still in the grips of the GFC and the way things are looking world wide,I'd be happy to have a steady job any day.

Question; who would get the blame if a Qantas plane fell from the sky?
The CEO would finally get the wrap under legal obligations so how does he protect the traveling public safety.... stop the planes flying, then they won't crash... simple.
Would you fly in a plane with a known mechanical problem and it wasn't fixed.

Part of the Union claims were to "provide continuity of employment" despite technology changing. So what you need to keep people on that are no longer required? The employer needs to be able to adjust its workforce to meet changing times.
Why do you think there are now so many contract and casual staff used in industry these days?

Oh by the way my daughter does / has done work for Qantas.

swoosh said...

SomeOtherGuy said...

Chris6791 said...

I'm all for unions, to a point. They do make pay negotiations easier for the individual and the company when they negotiate for all. But somtimes I think unions lose sight of the bigger picture, the company is there for the benefit of the shareholders that invest, not the employers that work for them.

Anyone who works for a living that thinks their employer owes them anything more than wages and accrued leave entitlements are kidding themselves, it doesn't matter how long you have worked for the company they ultimately owe you nothing more than your next pay check.

And similarly I don't owe my employer anything other than to do my job properly and professionally in return for that pay check. When it comes time to negotiate a pay rise, I certainly don't owe it to my company to make things easy for them. I do owe it to myself to negotiate hard in my best interest, same as they do for their best interest.

What if you aren't worth as much as you think you are? And the company decides to employ other people who can do the same job for less? You begin strike action to get paid more, and get job security written into your clause? Nice going qantas pilots.

I'm not surprised that they feel under threat. The simple maths is that there are a lot of smart people who would love to take the jobs of those qantas jocks. Who wouldn't want to get paid a mint, travel for your job and work less then 100 hours a month.

From the news report I just heard I'd say Alan Joyce is a knob. These are just negotiations, they happen all the time. It was his decision to pull the pin on Qantas and now thousands of innocent people are trapped at airports around the world. What about their right to work?

Anyone know what this imigrant's annual income is?

Is qantas going broke..?

1 Do they not agree to these employee demands cause it will bankrupt them..?
2 Are they just trying to wring every last cent out for share holder benefit..?
If they're not to the first and are to the second...
Seems a tad contemptuous towards the market they service.

We reap what we sow, and it's friggen harvest time...

We are quickly finding out on all fronts just how much all those imported bargains are actually costing us...

Those smelly hippies occupying public space in protest, inconveniencing you whilst you try and consume, those arrogant well paid professionals sitting on their hands refusing to bow to company demands of profit at all cost....(including ultimately your safety and national sovereignty)

Turn off the tv and think about what's exactly happening now..

We better start lifting our heads out of the junk mail cataloges and take our country back or before we know it our kids will be making belts on street footpaths with a brick and a financed hole punch for their child labour boss to ship back to india, while we learn to speak hindi to get a job at a tele communications call centre...

I like this commentary from Dick Smith www.dailytelegraph.com.au/nocookies?a=A.flavipes

The worlds changing and most of us no longer care to pay the premium to fly with a premium airline. Nowadays, they are really just buses that fly.

Personally I'm counting on Qantas to get me to WA this summer, cause for the price, and the luggage allowance, they are a cheaper option then Virgin/Jetstar. When you got a premium brand with more highly paid pilots etc trying to compete with the budget airlines, you know that something has to give.

As far as CEO pay goes, I agree its ridiculous how much executives get paid, but its not just qantas. Hence all these occupy protests we have seen of late. To put it in perspective thou, the CEO of Mcdonalds in australia gets paid twice what alan joyce is paid.

A CEO who pockets 2 million $ pay rise (don't want to think what his gross is) yet cannot accept his employees asking for 30 or 40 (maybe more in some positions there)bucks a week extra??????????
The cream-scooping fatboys up top of these companies have got to be stopped - someone else mentioned obcene too.

The main reasons QANTAS has a good safety record is the compartive emptiness of Australian skies and the usually sunny Aussie weather.

Let QANTAS go overseas if it wants to. In return open up the Australian domestic air travel market to foreign airlines. Australia owes QANTAS nothing and in return QANTAS should expect nothing from Australia.

It should be the right of every worker to withdraw their labour if they choose to. In return it should be the right of every employer to ask a worker to leave and never return if that worker decides to withdraw their labour.

adolf said...

From the news report I just heard I'd say Alan Joyce is a knob. These are just negotiations, they happen all the time. It was his decision to pull the pin on Qantas and now thousands of innocent people are trapped at airports around the world. What about their right to work?

Anyone know what this imigrant's annual income is?

Couldn't agree more, adolf. These guys are playing hard ball which is fair enough. But Joyce was the one who decided to screw all his customers, not the unions. Income after the 71% payrise I heard was about $5 million a year. Not sure if that includes bonuses or not.

Remember also that Qantas hasn't paid a dividend on its shares for 2 years. So the investors have got zero, the employees have got the shaft but Joyce has got a 71% pay rise. For what?

surfnsirhiss said...

Call me cynical but it is amazing how the Queen was able to get on a flight before Qantas cancelled all flights. That was good timing

She flew British Airways..... not Qantas