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Aircraft engineers in Australia to take industrial action over pay
15 May 2008
Aviation workers in Australia are starting industrial action this week in a dispute over pay.
Aircraft engineers at Qantas Airways, represented by the ITF-affiliated Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers’ Association (ALAEA), are to introduce an overtime ban from midnight tonight as well as two four-hour “stop work” meetings on 16 and 23 May. The union has rejected the company’s offer to increase pay by three per cent and superannuation by one per cent and is continuing to demand a five per cent pay rise, which it claims better reflects cost of living increases.
Qantas has announced that a number of domestic flights scheduled for 16 May have been cancelled and that other flights on that date could be subject to delay as a result of the four-hour stoppage.
The ALAEA has not ruled out the introduction of 48-hour stoppages if the dispute escalates; it believes that the company is planning to use strikebreakers to break up the union’s action.
Ingo Marowsky, ITF Civil Aviation Section Secretary, commented: “We condemn the use of strikebreakers in any dispute and wholeheartedly support the union’s decision to take industrial action, including a 48-hour stoppage, if necessary. We believe that these workers deserve a fair wage.”
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