Qantas faces further strike
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Qantas is facing the prospect of strike action on one of the busiest weekends of the year, after the further Transport Workers’ Union (TWU) instructed 3,800 baggage handlers, ground staff, and other members to go on strike for one hour on Friday 30 September.
The strike is expected to disrupt the travels plans of thousands of people, including football fans travelling to Melbourne for the AFL Grand Final, rugby league fans travelling from New Zealand to Sydney for the NRL Grand Final, and families travelling for school holidays and the long weekend in some parts of Australia.
The union also said that more than 50 TWU delegates will hold a two-hour stop work meeting on Thursday 29 September as part of the ongoing pay dispute with Qantas.
Qantas accused the TWU of “holding passengers to ransom”, and said it is now planning contingency measures to minimise impacts on passengers. The strike action follows a similar work stoppage by the TWU last week. On Tuesday 20 September Qantas was forced to cancel 28 flights and delay 27 others, causing disruptions to more than 6,100 passengers.
“Over the past month, more than 20,000 people have had their flights cancelled or delayed as a result of the industrial action by the engineers’ union and the TWU,” she said. “This is a coordinated campaign by three unions, with the pilots’ union, the licensed aircraft maintenance engineers’ union and the TWU all taking some form of industrial action over this period,” Qantas said in a statement.
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