11 replies to this topic

[Strategist]

Yeah this is majorly going to fuck up the plans of a lot of travellers and also like you mentioned, a lot of regular FIFO (Fly In, Fly Out) workers to remote areas.

My uncle is one of those people who could potentially be affected by this industrial action etc. He works up in Moomba at the oil fields and flies in and out every 2 weeks. The only way to get there too. Unless you want to leave a week before you start work in a 4wd.

Will be interesting to see what comes of it in the next few days/weeks.

And this isnt just a local Australian thing either. Worldwide disruptions to ALL QANTAS flights.

[Nymh]

Interesting. Being from America, I instantly thought about how many American towns have no air access at all. I wondered, why is this such a big deal? Can't they just drive to the nearest major airport like we do?

But then (luckily) I kept reading How interesting! I take for granted an infrastructure that has roads to everywhere. This reminds me of Reagan when he fired those 11,000 air traffic controllers because they went on strike.

This brings to mind a bigger picture (because I'm always looking at the bigger picture) of the decreasing power of unions in the world's job markets. I would imagine more companies will be making ballsy moves like these in the future.

I am sorry for all the customers that are affected though.

[Therion]

Interesting. Being from America, I instantly thought about how many American towns have no air access at all. I wondered, why is this such a big deal? Can't they just drive to the nearest major airport like we do?

But then (luckily) I kept reading How interesting! I take for granted an infrastructure that has roads to everywhere. This reminds me of Reagan when he fired those 11,000 air traffic controllers because they went on strike.

This brings to mind a bigger picture (because I'm always looking at the bigger picture) of the decreasing power of unions in the world's job markets. I would imagine more companies will be making ballsy moves like these in the future.

I am sorry for all the customers that are affected though.

You've also got to factor in how important international flights are in the south pacific. A US business can technically reach most of south america and canada by rail/car. Australia and the rest of the south pacific is mostly islands, flights are VERY important as most boat travel between the various islands have become obsolete and are no longer running.

Not to mention a large portion of AU has no roads, as it's just desert.

If Virgin pick up some of the slack, Air New Zealand might step in and help out as well, I know they have a fairly prominent position at Cairns International Airport, but I don't know what their staffing is like at present - they might still be relying on Qantas or Virgin/Pacific Blue staff.

Given Qantas' safety record though, I think the workers are completely justified in their complaints. Qantas is a fairly large airline company but they're also competing with Virgin so I don't think they should be quite so hesitant to improve conditions. With all the protesting corporate greed and unrest going on, I would think they'd be as concerned as ever to appease customers.

I don't know what I'd do if Air New Zealand stopped flying all-together, as my country is reliant on them for 90% of all domestic flights and a good 50% of international outgoing flights.

[Abradix]

So, they shit on their customers and laugh at union guidelines... And I bet a bundle people still won't boycott.

[Waser Lave]

Wouldn't it have been cheaper to agree to the demands (or negotiate it down a bit) rather than shutting down completely? They'll be losing millions every day that they're shut down, not to mention the damage to their reputation...

[Strategist]

The QANTAS execs are just being childish IMO. Like Waser said, they could've easily come to a reasonable agreement as opposed to shooting themselves in the foot by shutting down all together. In doing so, they will lose a lot of business/profits and a lot more so than if they had taken the offers of the unions. Poor judgement on their behalf. A lot of customers are already saying they will not ever fly with QANTAS again after the recent safety/maintenance issues and now this.

I think a lot of it has to do with the new Carbon tax that our fucking useless Prime Minister has introduced. A lot of companies are having to pass this onto their employees and customers to try and negate the effects it will have on their businesses.

[rraven]

doesn't virgin blue fly to your town? that's horrible.

[Therion]

doesn't virgin blue fly to your town? that's horrible.

If they do, it's possible they used Qantas staff. I know Air NZ often use Qantas staff for flights out of AU. I believe Virgin are originally a UK airline company(?), so outsourcing the less popular flight routes to Qantas' staff is indeed a possibility.

[Suarez7]

Working in the hotel industry in Melbourne, this whole QANTAS mess was an absolute pain. My hotel is one of the busiest in Melbourne due to the conferencing facilities so we were near full anyway, the amount of late check outs, extension requests, attempted bookings and abuse for not being "understanding" to the situation was beyond annoying.

This strike effectively achieved nothing and shows that with the current government we have, we give unions way too much power. All this achieved was stuffing everyone around and ruining their own image.