Belly,

Thanks for your comments.

Just from a history point of view the Licensed Engineers union or assoc was formed whilst I was an apprentice at Qantas. I worked for or with a number of engineers who later became some of its early officials.

In later years when I moved into management with other organisations it did make the contact with the union easy. Whenever I needed information or advice I was remembered as one of their ex apprentices and always found any discussions laid back and without any dramas.

The old story of not what you know but who you know I guess.

Just for info my bro is a ham operator. I still have my CASA/DCA radio operators license. I learned to fly many years ago but gave it away when I came to the conclusion there had to be a cheaper way of frightening the bejasus out of myself than flying.

Take it easy.

SD

Belly, want it or not, we are going to have to work for Asian wages, there is no question about it. Once the mining boom quietens down we have nothing to offer that is any better than what they offer, & in many cases it is less good.

Just think;

We are no smarter.

We are no longer better educated, in fact we are becoming less well educated.

We don't like to work as hard as they do.

We don't even feed ourselves now.

We, with the Kiwis, are a small group of people in an out of the way, Ar's end cul de sac of the world. If we sank tomorrow, it may be weeks before anyone noticed.

We have a third world economy, with a first world public service, propped up by mining, & our prospect of becoming the poor white trash of Asia are very Bl00dy good.

We have these ex government enterprises, overmanned by a factor of 4, with staff over paid by 2. They were sold off when they were loosing too much money for government to handle. Bankruptcy for them is just a matter of time, even with drastic staff cuts, & brilliant management, if we could find any of that. If government monopoly could not make them viable, how can competition?

Then we get idiots like Blue calling $40 an hour slave wages, god help us. If we don't start getting our act into gear it will be more like $40 a damn day, & we may not be worth that much.

We are sailing into a cyclone, with our hatches wide open. If we don't start getting ready for trouble soon, we won't have anyone but ourselves to blamewhen we sink.

I would love to see Qantas a top airline again. I have no idea how you make it so, but I do know it sure isn't by fighting silly wars within the company.

Hasbeen,

Glad I am not mixed up in it. There are some dreadful problems in front of many involved and at this stage there does not appear to be any real solutions that will make everybody happy.

The problems as you say are Australia wide and it is going to require some wise heads and a lot of pain to resolve the issues in front of the country.

Sadly the wise heads do not appear to exist in any numbers especially in the ranks of our politicians. Across the board they would have to be worst assembly I have ever seen.

Take it easy.

SD

Shaggy you have obviously seen it from both sides, as I have.

I have seen that the wages we paid to skilled people were far too high for us to earn any money employing them.

But I have also seen that it would be very hard to live on those wages, even in a regional centre, let alone a capital city.

It is obvious we have to bring the cost of housing down, but how, & what happens to those who still owe todays prices.

I think I'll stop now, before the head ache becomes too strong.

Belly, the unions may not have been on strike, but their on again, off again approach to strikes had it's intended effect, and that was to cause major disruption and uncertainty within the traveling public.

When you have union thugs, who are actually leaders, saying don't fly Qantas anymore, that is the lowest of lows,so they did worse than go on strike, as they caused the same effect, yet still got paid, and that's wrong.

Their intent was to harm the brand and all our PM could do was watch until the 11th hour then claim credit for fixing the problem she allowed to fester.

The worst part is that the laws that she herself drafted were considered unworkable.

Brace yourselves for a huge pay cut or no jobs at all.

It's been brewing, it's just that you need to be on the other side of the fence to see the warning signs.

And don't expect the government to bail you out, cause they have pissed all our money away one one disaster after another.

All labor voters should take a bow!

Rechtub, please, brace your self, not me,an airline pilot Quantas one, can leave the industry take up a job in mining and be rich.
Mines are full of ex police, office workers, and people who have done the life change.
And we still can not get enough.
Carpenters, bridge form work carpenters, not in unions, being offered not striking for, massive wages supply and demand mate.
NOT UNIONS, we will never work for Asian wages.
Quantas held its passengers and this country to RANSOM.
Rechtub MILITANCY! we help that firm, we reserve some trips for them.
Australia, should without ANY DELAY! introduce foreign airlines , free them all, to fly on every flight/area we have to protect our country from Militant unions and firms.
You ignore a crime, one you would scream about,if unions did it.
'Are you fair dinkum mate?