QANTAS heavy maintenance workers are mobilising for strike action after the national carrier unexpectedly called off enterprise bargaining talks with unions yesterday.
Adding confusion to the situation, Qantas chief executive Geoff Dixon called off a briefing slated for this morning where he was expected to announce whether the airline would outsource its widebody heavy maintenance overseas.
Qantas's head of people, Kevin Brown, said Qantas called off the "engineering transformation" update because of last-minute delays but said a decision was imminent.
Qantas has postponed enterprise bargaining agreement talks with the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union and Australian Workers Union until March 6, prompting speculation that a decision on whether to outsource maintenance overseas would be made next week.
"We don't know why they called off the talks," said the AMWU's assistant national secretary, Glenn Thompson. "We're in a situation now where we'll be talking to our delegates as soon as possible and dealing with a process to move ahead."
While a move to send work to Asia could result in more than 2500 job losses, any decision to keep work in Australia was also expected to result in wholesale job cuts, given Qantas wants to slash maintenance costs by 20 per cent.
The airline has 6900 maintenance workers. There are fears Qantas will shut its Sydney Boeing 747 and 767 maintenance base if it decides to restructure its Australian maintenance operations.
Asked what the consequences would be if Qantas outsourced maintenance to Asia, AWU national secretary Bill Shorten said: "The reaction will be unpleasant for Qantas."
He said it would be "absolutely ungrateful" for Qantas to sack thousands of workers, given the Federal Government's decision this week to protect the airline's most profitable international route - Australia-US - from further competition.
The AMWU has warned it would launch industrial action if the carrier sends its heavy maintenance to Asia or cuts jobs across its Australian operations without consulting with unions first.
There are mixed views within the union movement as to whether the AMWU and AWU will risk a potential backlash from the public and the Howard Government by launching strike action during the Commonwealth Games and Easter.
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