Coming home to roost

Isn’t it great having an ALP-Greens government with unions free to destroy jobs and businesses? Qantas announced the shedding of 500 jobs as their profits go into free-fall partly due to the union strikes late last year. BHP in trouble as thousands of miners walk off the job. Coastal shipping cargo costs to rise as much as 500% as unions and the government clamp down on foreign registered ships.
About 30 per cent of coastal shipping – the carriage of cargo between Australia’s ports – is now carried on foreign ships. In 1995, there were 55 Australian-operated ships carrying coastal cargo compared with 22 today.
The 55 down to 22 is another example of unions pricing themselves out of the industry.
“The MUA’s outrageous wage demands would see maritime workers such as those employees working as kitchen hands, stewards, dishwashers and basic cooks potentially earning up to $230,000 a year”
HSU’s Craig Thomson has the quote of the year award for this jaw dropper;
[he]…said it was nonsensical to suggest there had been any political interference in the FWA investigation. There is no benefit for me or for the government to go on as long as it has, he said. From a personal point of view, the sooner they finish it, the better.
Yeah right! Except, on the face of it, the longer it takes, the longer Thomson can stay in parliament and the longer the Gillard government can stay in power. If Thomson is found to have no case to answer I fully believe it will be because the HSU doesn’t have a rule that makes spending union funds on whores and cash advances illegal. Kim Sattler from the Unions ACT has been caught out lying about her involvement in winding up the Australia Day riot in Canberra. Imagine that, a union rep lying. With over a year to go before an election things will get a whole lot worse. I pity any incoming LNP government – it will take all of the first term just to get the country back on track.

9 comments

  • Reasons for the job losses –
    “partly due to the union strikes late last year”
    – Kev
    “He said the 500 jobs to go would be made “structurally redundant” because of aircraft retirement and operational changes” – Alan Joyce
    I’d be inclined to believe the CEO.

    • 194,000,000 dollar loss attributable to industrial action, ….even a Rhodes scholar like you would have to see at some point that, part of the fiscal problems facing the airline do result from the fiasco caused by the unions and finally brought to a head by Joyce, which have reduced the profitability/viability of the airline and therefore structural changes became inevitable. Take off the red blinkers. If this airline was a car company they could just ask for a leg up and Juliar and Co. would borrow some more money and give it Joyce to keep running at a smaller margin. And we the populace could find the wherewithall somehow to pay back the Chinese or Arabs. Don’t get me wrong Robert I AM A CYNIC.

  • “194,000,000 dollar loss attributable to industrial action” – industrial action called by the CEO. This is a classic case of a self-inflicted wound.
    Poor fleet purchase decisions and route mismanagement prior to Joyce’s stewardship are the root cause of the Red Rat’s problems – not their workforce.

    • Look to the root cause Bobby not the resultant action. Industrial action taken and maintained by the unions had the result that Joyce took action where no umpire would, in order to bring said industrial action to a halt.

    • It is one thing to be a bullshit artist 12345, you’ve been caught out that way more times than I can count, but try not to be a stupid bullshit artist. the unions were gloating that they would roast Qantas slowly and the morons in Canberra had put in place laws that gave Qantas no other option but to shut down and see if the unions blinked first, they were quite literally going to close if they didn’t win this fight.

    • What Harry said…

  • “Qantas said grounding of the fleet as part of an industrial dispute with unions late in 2011 cost $194 million”
    Well done that man!

    • Kindly give us your thoughts on whether the cost of losing a hand to cancer, is likely to be more or less than the cost of killing the body and thereby wounding the thousands dependent on it.

      For the second part of the exercise, please provide the names of trade union officials who have:

      * Owned and run a successful business that was not dependent on government/union contracts.

      * Left their union position to buy and run a business not dependent on government/union contracts.

      * Voluntarily done anything to improve the profitability of an employer.

    • The grounding of the fleet was the reaction to an industrial dispute with no forseeable end, brought about by the unions, and therefore costings are attributable to the root cause….the dispute as a whole, from beginning to end including the subsequent fallout,ie incurred ongoing expenses. OR….if the union had not been so inflexible or an arbitrator had been able to resolve the matter without action by Joyce, costing would only have included losses from down time and lost service to the customers. Bobby, you are from the more recent brigade where blame is attributed to the wronged, rather than shared by all participants. Joyce did not point the finger, it was a general statement of fact indicating that the dispute cost $194M which cut into the profits a little, along with increased ongoing costs, and hence the restructuring/downsizing became a necessity.

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