TWU flexes muscles for a battle in the aviation sector

In the interests of prosperity and improving the nation’s sluggish growth, industries, the Fair Work Commission and the Albanese government need to assert the importance of productivity amid increasing trade union activity. The powerful Transport Workers Union has signalled its push for significant pay rises and better conditions for more than 10,000 aviation workers across an industry where margins are tight. In a major industrial campaign that seeks to capitalise on wall-to-wall Labor governments across mainland Australia, Ewin Hannan reports, the TWU will challenge incoming Qantas chief executive Vanessa Hudson to “repair the damage” caused under outgoing chief executive Alan Joyce, whose relationships with unions were often fraught.

In a keynote address to the union’s national council on Tuesday, TWU national secretary Michael Kaine will declare that the union also will look at pursuing multi-employer bargaining in the future. The union estimates more than 10,000 workers will be affected by the campaign, including pilots, cabin crew, baggage handlers, refuellers, catering staff and cleaners.

“With a groundswell across Australia and in parliament for fairer wages and job security, we have a unique opportunity to recalibrate the industry,” Mr Kaine said. “To rebuild aviation around a strong, skilled workforce as its nucleus. We will marry up that power with the industrial instruments at our disposal to lift standards root and branch across our airports. We will do everything in our power to achieve this.” The union planned to rebuild aviation using “all industrial instruments at its disposal to lift pay and conditions”. Reversing 15 years of cumulative attacks on workers from what he described as “a callous Qantas management team” would take time, Mr Kaine said. But if the TWU was known for anything, it was “for our relentlessness”.

Writing in The Australian in November last year, Mr Joyce argued: “Not agreeing to every union demand or asking for productivity improvements isn’t an abuse of bargaining … Nor is disagreeing with union leaders who, for their own recruiting drives, are intent on securing uncompetitive industry-wide terms.” Negotiation, Mr Joyce said, relied on give-and-take. “Qantas does not resile from the fact that in order to compete domestically and internationally, it has needed to evolve,” he said. “The alternative was to stand still and end up going the way of Ansett as new competitors were established.”

As the Reserve Bank of Australia warned in its most recent monetary policy statement, unit labour costs were rising briskly but productivity growth was subdued. Wages growth was still consistent with the 2 to 3 per cent inflation target, provided productivity growth picked up.

The prospect of a battle over wages and conditions in the aviation sector comes as miners warn the Albanese government against allowing bullying and harassment in the workplace under the guise of industrial activity. In response to a Department of Employment and Workplace Relations consultation paper ahead of Labor’s second round of IR changes, mining companies said employers must not have “their hands tied in their duties to keep their workplaces safe and free from bullying, discrimination and victimisation by any workers, including union representatives”.

The Minerals Council of Australia backed legislative changes supporting greater respect at work. But, it said, exempting those involved in industrial activities from liability for their conduct ran counter to the notion of freedom of association.

Mr Kaine described coast-to-coast Labor governments as “a historic opportunity”. Neither the government nor the Fair Work Commission, however, should allow unions to dictate play to their benefit and the detriment of the wider economy.