Qantas Halts 6 Flights As Strike Begins

Qantas Airways canceled six flights Monday and said it might employ strikebreakers after engineers began a two-day strike, escalating a long-running pay dispute.

Members of the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association, or Alaea, walked off the job in three states, disrupting flights in Sydney, Melbourne and Cairns, over Qantas’s refusal to grant a 5 percent wage increase for 1,500 engineers. The airline is offering 3 percent.

“I don’t think that there is a settlement at hand here,” said Kevin Brown, Qantas’s executive general manager for people.

“Each time we go to meet the Alaea, they put on strike action, and we’ve been very clear about this: We’re not going to meet with a gun to our head,” Brown said.

Qantas is at the sharp end of a problem facing many Australian companies: With inflation running at more than 4 percent, workers are demanding bigger pay increases at a time when consumer demand is cooling and employers are looking to cut costs. The airline also has to contend with soaring fuel costs.

The carrier said another 18 flights would be canceled Tuesday as the dispute continued. Up to 500 engineers were expected to join the dispute.

Brown said both sides were still a long way apart in negotiations and the airline might use contract engineers.

Originally published by Reuters.

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