Teamsters Join Global Day Of Action At Los Angeles, Dallas Airports To Stand With Australia's Qantas Workers
(WASHINGTON) — Members of the Teamsters Union today are joining in a multi-union action at Los Angeles International Airport and Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport as part of a day of global solidarity with the tens of thousands of Qantas Airways employees who were cruelly locked out by their own employer last month.
Qantas employees represented by the Transport Workers Union (TWU) and other major unions have tried to negotiate a fair contract that curbs the outsourcing of good Australian jobs but have been rebuffed by management. The Teamsters, the largest union of transportation workers in the U.S., represents the international crew that handles Qantas (QAN:AU) freight.
“Qantas airline workers around the world dedicate their lives to helping their company grow,” said Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa. “We will continue to stand up and fight for our brothers and sisters Down Under until they win a contract that fairly rewards them for the hard work they do to make their employer so successful.”
In the airline industry, outsourcing makes passengers and crew more vulnerable to safety problems and flight disruptions. Qantas management’s intractability is also widely viewed as a short-sighted, bottom-line attack on its workforce that will lead to the erosion of service and quality of an iconic Australian brand.
Teamsters Airline Division members immediately staged U.S. demonstrations to support Qantas pilots, flight attendants, baggage handlers, ticket agents and other workers after CEO Alan Joyce’s costly decision to freeze the entire fleet stunned shareholders and left countless customers around the globe stranded for several days in late October.
Qantas’ hostile approach with its workforce has come under fire because strong industrial unions in Australia like the TWU have constructive relations with management to help employers compete via collaborative strategies that serve labor and management alike.
However, the federal government in Canberra was forced to intervene so that the workers could return to their jobs during a 21-day period in what was widely viewed as an unprecedented retaliation against workers who were negotiating in good faith. The TWU has since lodged an appeal against the bans placed on striking and there is a possibility that industrial action will be taking place on the lead up to Christmas travel.
“We call on Alan Joyce to end his campaign to destroy good Australian jobs. We demand that this CEO stop his war on workers, passengers, the public, and the company’s performance,” said Teamster Airline Division Director Capt. David Bourne.
The Teamsters work in close partnership with the TWU on common goals to lift up standards for workers at shared global employers.
Last month, a Teamster delegation hosted by members of the union and its National Secretary Tony Sheldon were stranded in Sydney during the lockout. Two days earlier, senior officials and a transportation worker from Los Angeles attended the Qantas annual general meeting. Joyce and the board of directors were attacked at that meeting for engaging in labor relations that pose risk to the business and a key Australian sector.
The Teamster delegation traveled to Sydney and Melbourne to educate TWU’s unionized transportation workers about the substandard pay and deplorable workplace conditions that America’s truck drivers endure at the hands of their Australian-based employer, Toll Group.
The two unions vowed to support joint strategies to overcome Toll and Qantas’ anti-union practices in both countries.
Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents 1.4 million hardworking men and women in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. Visit www.teamster.org for more information. Follow us on Twittter @TeamsterPower.