Qantas engineers plan to strike in Sydney, coinciding with the New South Wales school holidays and the run-up to the NRL grand final, as they step up their fight for better pay.
Many workers will stay home early next week as their union pushes for a 15 percent pay rise in the first year of a new enterprise deal, followed by five percent each year after that.
On Thursday, a strike by Qantas engineers in Melbourne threatened disruption ahead of Saturday’s AFL Grand Final, but the airline said customers were not affected.
Qantas says it has contingencies for the next round of strike action which will take place at the start of the school holidays and just days before the NRL Grand Final on Sunday 6 October.
Australian Workers Union national secretary Paul Farrow said there was no “strategy” behind the timing of Monday’s strike, after four months of negotiations.
He sympathized with Qantas passengers who may face delays.
“It’s completely understandable, but it’s a problem for Qantas, not a problem for our members, because our members only have one window to negotiate their salaries and that’s when their deal expires,” he said on Friday.
“Anyone with any frustrations please speak to Qantas.”
Qantas engineers have planned a strike in Sydney as the school holidays begin and travelers flock to the city for the NRL Grand Final (file image)
Australian Workers Union national secretary Paul Farrow said there was no “strategy” behind the timing of Monday’s strike, which follows four months of negotiations (file image)
He described the airline’s offer of a three per cent annual pay rise as a “slap in the face”, especially after pay freezes and redundancies during the height of the Covid pandemic.
“Our members are asked to share the pain when the company goes through difficult times, and they do,” Mr Farrow said.
‘When the company starts making billions of dollars in profits and employees say, “Well, times are good now”… the answer is no.’
Qantas made a net profit of $1.25 billion in the 2023-24 financial year, down 28 per cent on the previous year.
The deal being negotiated covers about 1,100 aircraft maintenance workers, representing about 45 percent of the airline’s engineers.
About 300,000 people are passing through Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane airports ahead of Saturday’s AFL Grand Final, according to the Tourism and Transport Forum.
Victorian Sports Minister Steve Dimopoulos said on Friday that Qantas and Virgin Australia had to operate about 40 additional flights to accommodate passengers traveling from Brisbane and Sydney to Melbourne for the AFL Grand Final.
A survey of 1,500 people by PureProfile found that 71 per cent of Australians plan to take a break in September or October, with about a third heading interstate or overseas.