ITF responds to Qantas strikebreaker training

April 6, 2011

The ITF has condemned Australian airline Qantas’ reported training of managers for potential use as strikebreakers in the event of possible industrial action by baggage handlers and ground staff.

ITF president Paddy Crumlin will personally raise the matter at the federation’s executive board next week.
ITF general secretary David Cockroft said: “Any such training would seriously call into question whether Qantas management are actually sincere about any future negotiations with their own personnel.”
Paddy Crumlin commented: “It is in the interests of the travelling public, shareholders, the workforce, and most importantly the community, for Qantas to sit down and establish a fair deal with its workforce under Australian workplace laws and processes.”
Australia’s Transport Workers’ Union described the training as “immoral and un-Australian,” and drew parallels with the Patrick’s waterfront dispute of 1998, when workers were trained for strikebreaking in the Middle East. (see TWU’s full statement).