{"id":896706,"date":"2026-09-18T16:02:25","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T16:02:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/896706\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T16:02:25","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T16:02:25","slug":"qantas-staff-plan-strikes-during-school-holidays-amidst-ongoing-union-turbulence-that-began-under-alan-joyce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/896706\/","title":{"rendered":"Qantas staff plan strikes during school holidays amidst ongoing union turbulence that began under Alan Joyce"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Qantas ground workers are planning industrial action next week following continual negotiation deadlocks for better pay and conditions between the major Australian airline and the Transport Workers\u2019 Union.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">The constant battle between Qantas and the union has been ongoing since 2021, when 1800 airport ground service workers were replaced with outsourced staff after they were illegally fired.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">The decision was made under the leadership of former CEO Alan Joyce in an attempt to dilute the power of union groups by outsourcing contractors and hiring staff under a range of enterprise agreements, causing division in the workforce.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-3mk41m-StyledText eze0guv9\">Sign up to The Nightly&#8217;s newsletters.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1r9pdr5-StyledSubText eze0guv8\">Get the first look at the digital newspaper, curated daily stories and breaking headlines delivered to your inbox.<\/p>\n<p>By continuing you agree to our <a href=\"https:\/\/thenightly.com.au\/subscription-terms\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Terms<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/sevenwestmedia.com.au\/privacy-policies\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Eleven months after negotiations about their treatment commenced, the remaining 650 ground service crew are planning a 24-hour strike on Thursday, September 24.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cWorkers do not take this action lightly,\u201d Transport Workers\u2019 Union National Secretary Michael Kaine told <a class=\"css-hwy1qg-StyledTextLink ezegcyi0\" data-link-type=\"article-inline\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2026-09-18\/qantas-tries-to-stop-school-holiday-industrial-action\/107167216\">the ABC<\/a> outside of the Fair Work Commission on Friday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cOld habits die hard, and the same despicable Alan Joyce tactic of splintering the Qantas workforce has been dusted off by the new bosses who want to suppress wages and smash conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Workers involved in the industrial action work for branches of Qantas Freight and QantasLink, so regional flights and freight services in and out of Sydney will be affected.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">While these staff members do not work for mainline or international Qantas services, the disruptions are still expected to span across postal services and regional travel.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cQantas operates essentially a sham arrangement where it puts these companies that they own in competition with one another to try and get to the cheapest outcome,\u201d Mr Kaine said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cThese workers are not going to stand for it and that means very likely industrial action next Thursday. It means disruption.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Qantas has assured customers that there are plans in place to minimise travel impact during industrial action despite school holidays commencing for Victoria and Queensland next week, and other states soon after.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cWe have well-developed contingency plans to minimise any impact on customers and our operations, should we be notified of any industrial action,\u201d a Qantas spokesperson said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">The airline also reinforced comments it made in August about the ongoing union negotiations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cWe remain committed to reaching an agreement with our Qantas Ground Services employees that includes annual pay rises for our people.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cOur focus is on an agreement that addresses what employees have told us matters most, including pay and more full-time opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Mr Kaine has insisted that disruption is necessary to reach a point of agreement between parties.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cAny disruption to freight, including Australia Post shipments, sits solely at the feet of Qantas management and its brutal disregard for customers and the workforce,\u201d Mr Kaine said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Australia Post has issued a statement confirming \u201cdetailed contingency plans\u201d are in place to minimise impact on delivery services and their customers whilst a freight partner is undertaking industrial action.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Mr Kaine claims an agreement must be reached amidst increasingly dangerous working conditions, as \u201cshocking safety failures\u201d have been reported since Qantas contracted out ground handling services to Swissport in 2020.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cThis action comes just over a year after a Qantas Freight worker was tragically killed on Father\u2019s Day,\u201c he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cThis is corporate greed on steroids, and it comes at the expense of quality service for customers, and safe, reliable jobs for the workforce.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Qantas disputes these claims, saying there has been no increase in safety incidents in the past six years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Qantas ground workers are planning industrial action next week following continual negotiation deadlocks for better pay and conditions&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":896707,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99],"class_list":["post-896706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=896706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/896707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=896706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=896706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=896706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}