Qantas engineers strike on busiest travel day
Hundreds of Qantas engineers have walked off the job across Australia’s capital cities on the first day of the busy Christmas holiday travel period.
The strike involving 500 workers was due to begin at 3.30am on Friday (AEDT) and continue for 24 hours at Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide Airports.
The stoppage involves the Qantas Engineers’ Alliance, which is made up of the Australian Workers Union, Australian Manufacturing Workers Union and Electrical Trades Union.
Qantas said it had made plans and promised the stoppage would not affect travellers.
“Around 160 aircraft maintenance engineers are rostered on during Friday’s industrial action and only members of the alliance unions can take industrial action,” it said.
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“Qantas has been able to manage the impact of this to date, and they have previously not resulted in any delays or cancellations for customers.”
Qantas engineers also walked off the job in September in the same pay dispute.
Qantas and the unions have been negotiating an enterprise bargaining agreement since April. It expired in June still unresolved.
The workers want a 15 per cent up-front pay rise and a 5 per cent annual increase.
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The AMWU posted on X that Qantas “continues to disrespect workers”.
“Qantas Engineers Alliance Unions, the AWU, ETU, and AMWU have had nine meetings with Qantas management to try to reach a fair pay deal in good faith,” it said.
“But Qantas continue to refuse to pay these highly skilled workers what they’re worth.
“This is totally unacceptable.”
The strike falls at the start of what is expected to be a record summer of travel in Australia.
Friday is shaping up to be the busiest day at Sydney’s domestic terminal, with more than 81,000 departures and arrivals.
Over the Christmas break, the airport expects half a million more domestic and international travellers than the same time last year — 5.8 million people from December 13 to January 27.
Virgin Australia is adding extra flights as Christmas travel records soar.
Extra flights have been added to popular holiday destinations such as the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Cairns, Tasmania, the Whitsundays, Hamilton Island, and Byron Bay.
