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Our friends over at Travel Weekly had a great article on Friday, featuring the Transport Workers’ Union holding an ‘alternative’ AGM at Sydney Airport’s QANTAS domestic terminal this morning to highlight the board’s silence on the outsourcing of 2,500 workers.

The “alternative” meeting was led by an Alan Joyce look-alike and sound-alike character [pictured with the real Alan Joyce below], an unidentified man speaking with a thick Irish accent, and nine ‘board members’, with plenty of “mickey taking” of the real Alan Joyce’s [pictured] Irish accent, with plenty of “tinks” and “tanks”!

The fake Joyce went through a series of satirical cost-cutting ideas including removing the wings from planes and having no employees “except myself and some key management roles”, going on to take questions, all of which he promptly avoided answering saying, with TWU National Secretary Michael Kaine saying, “The QANTAS board has been utterly silent since management announced it wanted to axe and outsource 2,500 loyal and highly trained workers,” adding, “We know passengers won’t get as good a service from an airline that contracts out its work to the lowest bidder.”

He also said, “We know shareholders and investors must be concerned about standards slipping with the loss of thousands of experienced dedicated workers”, and “The QANTAS board must stand up and hold management to account on behalf of workers, investors, passengers and the wider Australian community.”

The Travel Weekly report goes on to say that on Wednesday, the NSW Upper House of Parliament passed a motion condemning QANTAS’ outsourcing and demanding that it be stopped, with a similar motion expected before the Senate in a few weeks.

The TWU has also begun legal proceedings against QANTAS over the outsourcing with the Fair Work Commission hearing the case. A report by Ernst & Young states the initial criteria QANTAS set for workers to bid for their own jobs was “unattainable and unrealistic”.

Meanwhile, at QANTAS’ real AGM, which also took place this morning, the real Alan Joyce stressed the group’s need to cut costs, saying, “We have identified $15 billion in cost savings over the next three years, mostly through reduced flying activity,” adding, “We’re also targeting $1 billion in ongoing cost improvements from Financial Year 23.”

Joyce said QANTAS is also renegotiating its agreements with travel agents to create better selling opportunities for the trade and reduce its cost of sale.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=2686358865026775&ref=watch_permalink&t=233

 

 

An edited report from Travel Weekly by John Alwyn-Jones