Qantas grounded indefinitely ... is this the beginning of the end ... again?

Forums › Off topic › Qantas grounded indefinitely ... is this the beginning of the end ... again?

Batman

Mad Scientist
30012 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 6217

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#92247 29-Oct-2011 20:11

http://bigpondnews.com/articles/TopStories/2011/10/29/Qantas_has_grounded_its_entire_fleet_679321.html

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

Mad Scientist
30012 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 6217

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#539085 29-Oct-2011 20:20

in true gordon ramsay fashion the shareholders have declared "shut it down"; in response to union bargaining, the company would rather shut down business than bow down to employee demands!

rscole86

4999 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 462

Moderator

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#539086 29-Oct-2011 20:23

Possibly a good thing, their planes are always having mechanical problems anyway.

GeekGuy

597 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 82

#539094 29-Oct-2011 21:24

Didnt the CEO just get a pay increase to $5 million and then wanted to cut staff levels ?

MikeB4

MikeB4
18775 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 12765

ID Verified

Trusted

Subscriber

#539107 29-Oct-2011 22:15

The Australian Government should act. Legislate to stop the Union action. This harks back to old Watersiders and Boiler Makers Union actions in New Zealand in the 70's. Unions should never be allowed to hold the country to ransom. They are doing to Qantas what the Unions did to British Leyland.

Here is a crazy notion, lets give peace a chance.

Batman

Mad Scientist
30012 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 6217

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#539117 29-Oct-2011 22:45

sell the whole thing to Satnaq and hire everyone (who wants work) on the same contract ... will that work?

sbiddle

30853 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 9996

Retired Mod

Trusted

Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

#539121 29-Oct-2011 22:50

Seems the unions didn't learn a lot from the 1989 stike. It's really just a repeat.

Quic Broadband

Move to New Zealand's best fibre broadband service (affiliate link). Free setup code: R587125ERQ6VE. Note that to use Quic Broadband you must be comfortable with configuring your own router.

networkn

Networkn
32862 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 15453

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#539125 29-Oct-2011 22:54

joker97: in true gordon ramsay fashion the shareholders have declared "shut it down"; in response to union bargaining, the company would rather shut down business than bow down to employee demands!

Thank God, someone needs to put these unions in their place, they are a law unto themselves. It's brave of Qantas to do this, though alarming if you fly Qantas (which you couldn't pay me to do right now)

I never understood this whole thing about striking over pay and conditions, if you don't like your situation, then change companies, or careers.

If you are worth more pay, a company will pay you more, if they don't you move on to where you will get paid more, and if this persists, companies will adjust the pay situation. If you can't get a job for more money, you aren't worth more money (for a variety of reasons that may have nothing to do with you).

Very simply put of course, many factors involved, but the principles are sound (imho)

networkn

Networkn
32862 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 15453

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#539126 29-Oct-2011 22:56

GeekGuy: Didnt the CEO just get a pay increase to $5 million and then wanted to cut staff levels ?

I think 5M in the grand scheme of things isn't really that much (Compared to the savings of cutting staff), though he is a terrible CEO and doesn't deserve what he gets now, let alone 5M more.

Not saying I agree with cutting staff, but $5M isn't going to solve many of the issues Q faces.

DonGould

3892 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 164

#539127 29-Oct-2011 22:57

KiwiNZ: The Australian Government should act. Legislate to stop the Union action. This harks back to old Watersiders and Boiler Makers Union actions in New Zealand in the 70's. Unions should never be allowed to hold the country to ransom. They are doing to Qantas what the Unions did to British Leyland.

Australians and union bashing and unionisation... it's like a bloody sport over there.

My guess is they lost the RWC and they're all just grumpy as hell! ;)

Promote New Zealand - Get yourself a .kiwi.nz domain name!!!

Check out mine - i.am.a.can.do.kiwi.nz - don@i.am.a.can.do.kiwi.nz

DonGould

3892 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 164

#539132 29-Oct-2011 23:02

GeekGuy: Didnt the CEO just get a pay increase to $5 million and then wanted to cut staff levels ?

Don't know, but it's the sort of thing that really generates resentment isn't it?

You can really see the point that the baggage guys are making when you consider that if they don't do their job well then no one is going to be happy.

I'm not saying the unions are right, I just don't know.

But if you're lugging someones 20kg bag around while a CEO quacks "take what we offer you and be happy or we lock you out and I know you can't afford that because you're low wage, while on my $5m I can still eat where ever I like every day for 10 years even if they don't pay me a cent more..."....

Promote New Zealand - Get yourself a .kiwi.nz domain name!!!

Check out mine - i.am.a.can.do.kiwi.nz - don@i.am.a.can.do.kiwi.nz

Ragnor

8279 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 585

Trusted

#539138 29-Oct-2011 23:15

The problem is CEO pay is a form of "prestige" competition between companies, they aren't really worth that much but if a company doesn't pay their CEO big money they look bad comparatively.

Personally I like the Japanese or US military pay scale, the top is at most 30x the bottom.

It's hard to imagine that the CEO truely adds more value to a company than 30x an individual worker.

Lenovo

Shop now for Lenovo laptops and other devices (affiliate link).

networkn

Networkn
32862 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 15453

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#539140 29-Oct-2011 23:19

DonGould:
GeekGuy: Didnt the CEO just get a pay increase to $5 million and then wanted to cut staff levels ?

Don't know, but it's the sort of thing that really generates resentment isn't it?

You can really see the point that the baggage guys are making when you consider that if they don't do their job well then no one is going to be happy.

I'm not saying the unions are right, I just don't know.

But if you're lugging someones 20kg bag around while a CEO quacks "take what we offer you and be happy or we lock you out and I know you can't afford that because you're low wage, while on my $5m I can still eat where ever I like every day for 10 years even if they don't pay me a cent more..."....

Yah it actually represents a 71% increase which is huge under the circumstances. The timing could have been better.

However a CEO has responsibilities and workload that a baggage handler will likely not understand, let alone need to deal with, though this particular CEO deserves lashings, not pay increases. Under his leadership Q has gone to the crapper.

DonGould

3892 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 164

#539143 29-Oct-2011 23:27

networkn: However a CEO has responsibilities and workload that a baggage handler will likely not understand, let alone need to deal with

Sure, I agree there is a difference in value. I also get that a good CEO is going to have expenses that baggage handler won't... for example he'll have to buy his lunch each day because at breakfast time he'll be a bit busy reading his diary for the day to be putting butter on the bread... ;)

The main thing I think about is the reality that even though you are right, it doesn't diminish the fact that workers just resent that sort of disparity.

Promote New Zealand - Get yourself a .kiwi.nz domain name!!!

Check out mine - i.am.a.can.do.kiwi.nz - don@i.am.a.can.do.kiwi.nz

networkn

Networkn
32862 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 15453

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#539144 29-Oct-2011 23:31

DonGould:
networkn: However a CEO has responsibilities and workload that a baggage handler will likely not understand, let alone need to deal with

Sure, I agree there is a difference in value. I also get that a good CEO is going to have expenses that baggage handler won't... for example he'll have to buy his lunch each day because at breakfast time he'll be a bit busy reading his diary for the day to be putting butter on the bread... ;)

The main thing I think about is the reality that even though you are right, it doesn't diminish the fact that workers just resent that sort of disparity.

Completely agreed, sounds to me that the board needs a clean out, CEO needs a change, and the people who thought announcing this, at the same time everything else has gone off, should be summarily dismissed for poor judgement.

dontpanic42

1574 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 11

#539148 29-Oct-2011 23:35

So, will this also affect Jetstar aircraft?

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6