This info comes from a mate of mine who worked for Qantas and is still in the airline industry very interesting.
Baggage Handler base wage is $38,000. That's it. They rely on O/T and Penalties to get over the cost of living and they are asking for 5% and stated from the outset that they would negotiate on that. Which means they will take 3.5%. They also want a guarantee that albeit they accept th...at QANTAS will use contractors they want the workforce capped at 20% contractors and not 55% that the airline want. Contractors who don't get paid O/T or penalty rates of course
The TWU also want T&C's that cover safety, training and standards for all employees AND contractors, cos what do you know bugger all training for contract staff. Nothing important of course, it's just an airline in a Terrorist world.
The engineers want 3% (less than CPI) and they want A380 maintenance done here and not shipped overseas to the lowest Asian bidder to further downgrade the airlines safety record. As the A380 has only been in the air since late 2008 there isn't much maintenance yet so its a future plan than is needed for the infrastructure it wants.
The long haul Pilots haven't staged action for 44 years and asking for 2.5% (well under CPI) which once again has stated as negotiable. They've never had a stop work meeting, never called a strike. They want QANTAS flights to be piloted by QANTAS pilots and not cheap Jetsar Pilots, they also say that Jetstar Pilots should be paid equivalent to QANTAS pilots if they fly QANTAS flights as that's only reasonable. They also don't want to be relocated as a group to Asia, nor do they accept that they should all be replaced by cheap Asian pilots. The extent of their industrial action for the last 4 months? they make an announcement in air and they wear a red tie. Haven't cost QANTAS one red cent yet all got locked out.
