Strike
Jesus motherloving Christ. If Alan Joyce is making a late bid for Twat of the Year 2011, then he’s eating daylight on his competitors. On Saturday the Qantas CEO shut down worldwide operations of one of the planet’s biggest airlines, in an over-reaction that made King Lear look pretty chill.
Like one of those seasoned chooks you get all ready for roasting, some things come pre-satirised. On Friday, Joyce asked shareholders at Qantas’ annual general meeting to give him a pay rise of 71 per cent, from under $3 million a year to about $5 million. They did. The next day, he shut down their company entirely, because of the “extreme demands” of workers. First prize, Alan. Believe.
Where unions have to give 72 hours notice of any action, Joyce gave zero hours. He stranded 68,000 people worldwide, upended the plans of tens of thousands more, and lost an unquantifiable number of future bookings.
The Communications Electrical and Plumbing Union say they’ve been trying to negotiate with Australia Post for months and have been left with no choice but to strike three days before Christmas.
Australia Post says they’ve been forced to bump up the numbers of their Christmas casuals to deal with the all the joy and good tidings landing in post boxes around the country. One man’s “Christmas casual” is another man’s “strike breaker”.
Talk about bad timing. Unions clearly go for the holiday season to maximise the impact of their actions. Last week in Sydney the bus drivers walked off the job. British Airways had to scramble to avert a 12 day strike. And now the posties have given themselves a bit of extra time to get the last minute shopping done.
Continue reading "Who’s the grinch, Australia Post or the union?" »
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Ben G says:
“The union says the dispute is about job security, not pay.” One way to feel secure in your job is to keep at it. It’s no coincidence that they go for the holidays, thankfully the majority of the public is able to see through it. Unions are a dying movement,… Read more »
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Annika says:
To ‘N’ the contractor doing it all on his own. No doubt you are claiming every damn thing on tax such as the wifes Audi (she’s a Company Director afterall), the kids Xbox slipped into the tax return as an office computer, the trip to Euro Disney, oh yes that’ll… Read more »
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