Qantas’ West Australian pilots will strike for 24 hours this week as the airline makes a bid to use Labor’s new laws to trigger unilateral arbitration of its long-running pay dispute.

Network Aviation, a Qantas subsidiary whose 250 pilots service fly in, fly out workers at WA mines and fly passengers interstate, will apply to the Fair Work Commission on Monday for an “intractable bargaining” declaration after 18 months of failed negotiations and three deals voted down.