Qantas grounded all flights yesterday following the long running disagreement with the unions.
However, the Flight Attendants’ Association of Australia (FAAA) with 3,000 members working for Qantas, has come out in support of the Qantas decision to ground the airline’s entire fleet, saying the dispute needed to be brought to a head.
FAAA Divisional secretary Michael Mijatov said “The dispute has been going on for months, and in terms of our members… it’s a good thing that this be all wrapped up.”
The Qantas CEO Alan Joyce, had expected that the Government would immediately intervene to prevent the grounding of all aircraft, once he notified them about the grounding at about 2pm. But they didn’t. And Mr Joyce announced at 5pm that he was grounding all aircraft immediately.
Senator Evans confirmed has now that the Government would seek an emergency order under Fair Work provisions to force all parties to cease industrial action.
This should force unions to drop industrial action, and demand that Qantas end the lockout that has sparked the grounding of all domestic and international flights.
Result: Qantas will resume flying and the Unions will stop strike action.
Qantas share price has dropped by 39% this year compared to the S&P/ASX 200 Index being down only 8.3%.
Qantas share prices jumped by 5.5% today with the welcome news that the industrial dispute is over, following the forced intervention of Fair Work Australia who have now terminated all industrial action.
The ACTU has welcomed Fair Work Australia’s decision to return Qantas planes to the air.
Qantas has welcomed Fair Work Australia’s decision to terminated the industrial action by the ACTU and other unions.
Both sides seem happy that it is over.
We can now go back to normal.
Oh yes: Prime Minister Julia Gillard also says the Government has achieved its purpose of stopping industrial action at Qantas…
So who has succeeded ? Julia Gillard, Alan Joyce or the Unions ?