Media Contact - Judith Crosbie, Director of Communications, 0432 552 895; Philippa Hatton, Communications Officer, 0418 982 257
QANTAS is bracing for months of fraught negotiations, with union leaders threatening company-wide strikes in the middle of the year.
THE ACTU has claimed a victory in its efforts to spread contentious job security clauses across the workforce, after TNT agreed to a new enterprise bargain that pays outside labour the same rates as direct employees.
If you were to believe the nation's trade union leaders, the confrontation between Qantas and the labour movement is not only shaping as this year's biggest workplace dispute, it threatens to escalate into the most serious industrial fight since John Howard took on the maritime union in 1998.
The workplace regulator has been accused of wasting more than $1 million in taxpayer funds while prosecuting a union over strike action that was already being pursued by Qantas.
Up to 3000 Qantas workers at Brisbane Airport are threatening to walk off the job during the July school holidays if the airline fails to meet their demands in a new enterprise agreement.
An overloaded Qantas Airbus A330 flying from Sydney to Hong Kong was a risk to flight safety, air investigators have found.