James Hoffa, son of the legendary American union boss Jimmy Hoffa, has led a rally outside Australian transport company Toll Holdings' Los Angeles facility to protest what he says was the sacking of 26 US truck drivers.

3.5% pay increase each year for the next three years. Reinstatement of penalties, 43% on Saturdays will increase to 50% and Sunday will increase from 45% to 80% immediately and then to 100% by the third year. Paid holiday loading for the first time, 6% this year, 12% next year and 17.5% in 2013.

Practically every child in Australia in the '70s, '80s and '90s used some of their pocket money to buy Allsep's lollies. Noses pressed against the corner shop's glass counter, grimy 10¢ coins would be exchanged for booty made by Allsep's: jelly snakes and bright yellow lolly bananas.

More than one quarter of Australia’s owner-drivers would earn more money flipping burgers than hauling freight across the nation, according to analysis from PricewaterhouseCoopers. 

It is possible that it has been baiting the water with blood to attract the sharks. 

Workers at Kuwait Airways have called off strike action after the union representing them reached a tentative agreement with the government. They had been set for industrial action on 10 October over the state-owned company’s refusal to grant them benefits awarded to other public sector workers.

Discussions about the Qantas dispute, the carbon tax, the Fair Work Act, coalition’s asylum seeker policies, are the unions destroying Qantas? And Julia Gillard’s leadership.

Qantas has considered plans to outsource all its ground-handling operations during this decade as part of a longer-term strategy to reshape the airline and lower labour costs.

The Transport Workers Union is surveying Mackay truckies in a bid to reduce the road toll.

The Federal Government is close to announcing its position on safe rates, meeting with its advisory group today to finalise its response to a review into trucking pay methods. 

The International Air Transport Association has upgraded its profit forecast for this calendar year by more than 70 per cent to $US6.9bn, after the global economic gloom failed to stop people from flying.

A former flight attendant has told Lateline he quit his job at Jetstar because of safety concerns. The budget airline maintains it has rigorous safety standards but a clause in the contract for Singapore-based Jetstar crew states they could be forced to work shifts longer than 20 hours. 

Coles boss Ian McLeod is destroying the livelihoods of Australian farmers and wiping them out with a "new form of extreme capitalism", entrepreneur Dick Smith says.

The dark arts of accounting standards have awarded Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce a pay rise and a pay cut in the same year.

The US Federal Aviation Administration was worried enough about the availability of trained air safety inspectors and excessive delegation by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority of regulatory functions to airlines that it considered downgrading Australia's safety rating in late 2009, according to a WikiLeaks cable. 

A union boss turned senator has vowed to champion the cause of the transport industry and says safety is the responsibility of all parties in the supply chain.

A balmy gust of early spring weather wafted across the city midweek, providing welcome respite from the stormy conditions on global financial markets in the past month.

Seven hundred transport workers have blocked a main road in western Sydney to demand new federal work safety laws.

Virgin Australia is in secret talks with aviation unions to rescue 1000 workers Qantas is planning to sack. 

Coast bus travellers are braced for more chaos today, as drivers begin a two-day strike which could extend to the end of the week.

Virgin Australia has been accused of not warning its baggage handlers about a bomb threat to one of its planes at Sydney Airport on Thursday before they were asked to offload bags so they could be checked for explosives.

Queensland's bus drivers' union is calling on commuters to join a rally against Translink.

Deadlocked negotiations at a low cost airline have prompted unionists in Germany to vote in favour of strike action.

Bus drivers in Queensland's southeast are speeding and working 60-hour weeks to deal with tight timetables and low pay, their union says.

Qantas faces fresh disruption after the union representing baggage handlers and ground and catering staff warned strike action was likely within weeks unless the airline agreed to its job security demands.

The Gillard government is trying to quell internal dissent over the impact of the carbon price on the heavy transport industry, hinting there may be exemptions for some truckies and urging outspoken MPs and union officials to reserve judgment until Sunday’s policy announcement.

Julia Gillard will promise that seven out of 10 families will face no added financial burden from the carbon tax as she prepares to embark on a campaign selling her climate change laws next week.

A Party revolt is brewing on carbon tax at this weekend’s ALP conference, with warnings it will cost lives on the road and leave truck drivers $5000 a year out of pocket.

Australians will finally learn how the proposed carbon tax will hit their hip pockets when Prime Minister Julia Gillard unveils her policy on Sunday.

The Federal Government is under internal pressure to help industries like steel and transport cope with the carbon price that it plans to reveal on Sunday.

The fall-out from the Liberal Party’s presidential election last weekend has confirmed that WorkChoices is very much in the party’s DNA, say unions.

A multibillion-dollar fund for renewable energy and a review of the fuel tax regime are key concessions won by the Greens from the government in exchange for agreeing to exempt petrol from the carbon price.

Retiring Senator Steve Hutchins has been lauded for improving the lot of truck drivers and for bringing the “warring” tribes of the Transport Workers Union (TWU) together.

More than 1000 jobs will be lost indefinitely when a south-east Queensland meatworks suspends operations on Friday.

The commentary Qantas CEO Alan Joyce gave yesterday concerning the restructuring of its international services means August 24, when all is revealed, will be a flag-lowering day, a bloody day, with the loss of experienced pilot jobs and a retreat from poorly performing routes after what he promised would be a review made with “ruthless but honest” eyes.

The union movement says it is time the Federal Government pulled the trigger on safe rates, as a Labor backbencher calls for the reforms to be introduced urgently.

A parliamentary committee is urging a massive overhaul of airport and marine port security to fight the rise of crime networks in Australia.

A Sydney man has been charged with forging national airport security cards - a key component of Australia's national security regime - after representing himself to several airport cleaning companies as a legitimate card supplier.

Qantas has been forced to ground one of its passenger jets after rats were found on board.

Exclusive tests reveal salmonella and Third World parasites are present in human faeces fertiliser spread on farms, even after it has been treated, leading to calls for foods grown with the substance to be banned from supermarket shelves.

Qantas chairman Leigh Clifford says union demands, if implemented, would result in job losses at the airline.

The ITF has learned that workers and managers at DHL in South Africa are being subjected to intimidation for attempting to join a union.

The Australian Transport Unions Federation (ATUF) welcomed announcements in the federal budget related to regulatory reform and a massive funding boost for transport infrastructure, skills and training.

Qantas engineers are poised to fire the first shot in what may be an extended industrial battle leading to widespread delays and cancellations.

Australian workers will get a chance to have their voices heard when the ACTU’s Working Australia Census is launched tomorrow.

Questions have been raised about the adequacy of airport security amid union claims a foreign national working illegally on a student visa was able to access secure areas at Canberra Airport.

Qantas has been accused of misleading its highest-paying passengers by serving up frozen meals instead of the “fresh market-driven” produce the airline promotes. 

Qantas engineers will decide next week how to proceed with industrial action if they cannot negotiate a settlement in their dispute on working conditions.

Tensions with unions have escalated dramatically at Qantas in the past 24 hours, with strike action more likely than not, following a crisis summit held between the airline’s management and union leaders in Sydney yesterday.

Jetstar's treatment of two high-profile disabled campaigners has been condemned as unacceptable by New Zealand's Disability Issues Minister Tariana Turia.

Unions are threatening to wage a campaign of "guerilla warfare" against Qantas operations around the world if the airline replaces union labour with managers in the event of a strike by airport ground staff.

Unions have accused Qantas management of being driven by greed over the company's refusal to agree to a push for job security clauses.

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.

QANTAS is bracing for months of fraught negotiations, with union leaders threatening company-wide strikes in the middle of the year.

Qantas will pay a fine of $NZ6.5 million ($4.8 million) in New Zealand for its part in a global air-freight cartel, after reaching a settlement with the country’s corporate regulator.

An overloaded Qantas Airbus A330 flying from Sydney to Hong Kong was a risk to flight safety, air investigators have found.

Thousands of airline refuellers, baggage and transport staff have joined pilots and engineers in threatening strike action against Qantas to support controversial "job security" clauses aimed at limiting the use of outside labour.

The Transport Workers Union (TWU) wants contractors, casual employees and labour hire employees to have increased protection through changes to legislation after WorkChoices stripped protections for transport workers in NSW and Queensland.

The ITF-affiliated German union Ver.di, which represents the workers, reached the agreement with the company during the fifth set of negotiations on 17 December. Union members had twice taken strike action to fight for a fair deal for Fedex workers.

WorkChoices is on the way back in Western Australia following the release of a long-awaited review of the state’s industrial relations system, say unions.

This Aviation Briefing is a compilation of general aviation information we are collecting on a regular basis. In order to keep it as up-to-date as possible, it is sent out in English and by email only. Should you find an article which is of particular interest to you, please contact the Secretariat and we will try and either find it in your language or have it translated for you, exceptionally (time and resources permitting) 

Australian unionists should support the three imprisoned Vietnamese labour activists by joining a LabourStart email campaign, which has already sent more than 4000 protests to the Vietnamese government, the ACTU Executive resolved last week.

Workers at the centre of an important Fair Work Australia case have won the right to take indefinite strike action from next week.