Jetstar issue

[Min 6]

article from Financial Review, Western Australian newspaper today.

problems.. problems... problems...

Edited May 26, 2008 by Min

[Ivan L. 0]

It's reported here as well...

 

"The Australian pilots union has criticised plans by the Qantas group to use foreign pilots on its low-cost airline Jetstar, claiming there is no shortage of Australian captains and it would be safer to use them."

 

"While Mr Somerville did not directly say that the strategy would compromise passenger safety, he said he would "bet that the pilots brought in from the UK are not from British Airways, put it that way"."

Source: http://www.theage.com.au/news/news/jetstar...1653891010.html

 

The media and unions have blown out this issue out of proportion by saying it less safe to use foreign pilots.

[Min 6]

this is ridiculous, why they have to think that way? this is consider as racist. what's a difference gona make if foreign pilot have more hours flight than australian pilot. this is the thing about australian govt, they only think that they're the best among others. for you info, Lots of skilled foreigners working in the mining industry in Australia. im talking about the main resources in australia, and this is where they earned the money the most.. im working in one of their company and in fact i know this very well. so, where's Australian skilled workers nowadays? where they gone? plus most of the restaurant and fast food workers are immigrant or student, you hardly can find austalian working in such places. unlike before.

 

Last time they blaming on their plane tyres maintained by asian. what's that? can t confess its their own fault even thou their engineer supervised the maintenance before take off? shame on you! big toilet map! PISSED ME OFF!!

[Keith T 2]

The pilots' union are hardly taking an ideological stance - if you run a union your first and foremost priority is protecting the interests of your own members. You'd naturally want to protect your own members' interests when you feel that they are in any way threatened. I'd have reacted in the same manner had I been in that position.

 

I myself have worked as an industrial organiser for a large trade union and we would be doing a piss poor job if the employer/s of the people we represent had walked in and said - look guys we're going to limit your employment opportunities and instead fill up vacancies in the company with cheap labour, and we did nothing about it.

 

The airline unions have every right to be suspicious about these latest moves by QF - because seems like another wave of offshoring in disguise. The problem isn't so much about "jobs going to foreigners" - that in and of itself is not a bad thing. However more often than not it's designed to cut costs by being able to offer inferior working conditions and pay to these workers from overseas and causing a loss of opportunities to move into and within the company for existing employees.

 

And if you'd lived in Australia you'd realise that the 457 temp visas have been subjected to a whole lot of controversy. They were designed by the Howard government to plug skills shortages, but companies have more often than not used them to cut costs and engaged guest workers from overseas to undercut local working conditions and pay. Workers on 457 temp visas are not allowed to join trade unions and hence aren't able to benefit from the EBAs negotiated between unions and employers. And many of these people, who didn't know their rights in relation to min pay, OHS standards etc, were being exploited by ruthless employees.

 

Thus when you've got a company with a corporate history like QF, supposedly our national carrier but has instead been oursourcing left right and centre, hiring people on 457 visas (as opposed to hiring people on long term visas and offering them the same pay and conditions as existing employees) - the concern is two fold :

1) Local working conditions and pay are going to be undercut, substantially weakening existing employees' opportunities within the company and subsequent ability to bargain effectively for their wages and conditions

2) The emphasis is on cost cuts - you won't be seeing highly experienced pilots from the world's top airlines tripping over themselves for the pittance that QF is going to offer, in which case it'd be reasonable to infer that safety standards could be compromised.

Edited May 26, 2008 by Keith T

[Min 6]

Well, emirates accept anyone with highly skilled pilot to work in their company, and Emirates is one of the top airlines in the world.

this is source from Skytrax 2007:

 

Airline of the Year: Singapore Airlines

Best Cabin Staff: Malaysia Airlines

Best Catering: Gulf Air

Best In-Flight-Entertainment: Emirates

Best Lounges (First Class): Thai Airways - BKK

Best Low-cost Airline: Jetstar Airways

Best First Class: Qatar Airways

Best Business Class: Singapore Airlines

Best Economy Class: Korean Air

 

Emirates hires a lot of foreigners as flight attendants for their airline, and this airline consistently wins awards for its service. Source:Skytrax

 

did emirates ever judging other pilots other than their own? nope they dont. at least.... i dont want to keep on and on about this, and nothing wrong really and i have alots of aussiefriends here in perth, but hey, can they please do not blaming or accusing others? if you wanna have a good and skilled pilot, then assesed them fully till they sastisfied. too easy...

[Keith T 2]

Seems you've completely missed my point so I don't know why I should bother...

 

Except, at risk of going OT a little....:

 

this is source from Skytrax 2007:

Airline of the Year: Singapore Airlines

 

SQ's Stephen Forshaw certainly had this to say about Skytrax on 30 Jan 2007:

 

"Skytrax is not the benchmark by which we measure our performance against other airlines, and we don't treat a single click-to-vote award as a representation of the airline's total performance. For the record, nor did we when we topped the Skytrax award in 2004."

 

Sky who?

Edited May 26, 2008 by Keith T