Tens of thousands of stranded Qantas Airways passengers scrambled to
reach their destinations Sunday as the airline, its unions and the
Australian government argued in a lengthy arbitration hearing over the
abrupt grounding of its entire fleet.
The government wants the panel to order Qantas to fly in
Australia's economic interests. The airline is arguing for a permanent
ruling to end the unions' strikes that it says risk the airline's
viability, while the unions say the employee lockout imposed Saturday
was an extreme action and argue for a temporary suspension instead.
"It's not our place to start allocating responsibility, but
what I also know is there is a better way to resolve these matters ...
than locking your customers out," Australian Assistant Treasurer Bill
Shorten told reporters ahead of the arbitration hearing in the southern
city of Melbourne. "We want more common sense than that."
About 70,000 passengers fly Qantas daily, and would-be fliers
this weekend were stuck at home, hotels, airports or even had to
suddenly deplane when Qantas suspended operations Saturday. More than 60
flights were in the air at the time but flew to their destinations, and
Qantas was paying for passengers to book other flights.
Qantas had reduced and rescheduled flights for weeks as union
workers struck and refused to work overtime out of worries that a
restructuring plan would move some of Qantas' 35,000 jobs overseas.
German tourist Michael Messmann was trying to find a way home
from Singapore on Sunday. He and his wife spent five weeks traveling
around Australia but found their connecting flight home to Frankfurt
suddenly canceled.
"I don't know the details of the dispute, but it seems like a
severe reaction by the airline to shut down all their flights. That
seems a bit extreme," said Messmann, 68. "After five weeks of traveling,
we just want to go home."
Australian business traveler Graeme Yeatman sided with the
airline, even though he was also trying to find a new flight home to
Sydney on Sunday after his flight was canceled.
"I think the unions have too much power over Qantas. Even
though this is an inconvenience for me, I'm glad the airline is drawing a
line in the sand," said Yeatman, 41.
The court listened to arguments for four hours Saturday and
another nine Sunday after the government called the emergency hearing.
Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said the airline could be flying again
within hours if the three arbitration judges rule to permanently
terminate the grounding and the unions' strike action.
The unions want the judges to rule for a suspension so that the
strikes can be resumed if their negotiations with the airline fail.
The government's lawyer Tom Howe submitted to the court that
the lockout and strikes should be terminated or at least suspended for
four months.
He said a suspension was only a temporary solution to a dispute
that threatened significant economic damage to Australia's tourism and
aviation industries.
"That temporariness necessarily allows the real possibility,
indeed, the likelihood that at the end of the suspension period, there
may be a reinstatement of the lock out which, on the evidence before the
tribunal, would inevitably lead to the risk, if not likelihood, of
significant damage to an important sector of the Australian economy,"
Howe told the judges.
Qantas' lawyer Frank Parry told the court the airline "may
conclude that it cannot return to the air" if the court opts for a
suspension rather than a termination.
But the pilots' union lawyer Arthur Moses accused Qantas of
making an "implied threat" to the judges that only a termination would
ensure that the fleet would not remain grounded. Moses said no Qantas
witness had given evidence to back that submission.
Qantas executive Lyell Strambi testified that suspending the
staff lockout for three months could endanger aircraft safety because
the crews might be distracted, tired or angry.
"That could lead to conflicts in the cockpit - an array of things," Strambi told the tribunal.
Another Qantas executive Vanessa Hudson testified that the
airline's forward bookings had collapsed after 70,000 passengers had had
their flights disrupted by unions' rolling four-hour strikes in recent
weeks.
She said a permanent order would give customers enough certainty to book Qantas flights.
"As long as there's the continued threat that industrial
activity could return, I think that it will be impacting consumers'
decisions about which airline they choose to fly," she said.
The unions' lawyers asked for suspensions, which would leave the option open of future strikes.
Qantas said 108 airplanes were grounded but did not say how
many flights were involved. Among the stranded passengers are 17 world
leaders attending a Commonwealth summit in Perth, and the Australian
government was helping to get them home.
Joyce said the unions' actions had created a crisis for Qantas, trashing the brand and could shut it down piece by piece.
Qantas is among the most profitable airlines in the world, but
he estimated the grounding would cost the carrier $20 million a day.
The grounding of the largest of Australia's four national
domestic airlines will take a major economic toll and could disrupt the
national Parliament, due to resume in Canberra on Tuesday after a
two-week recess. Qantas' budget subsidiary Jetstar continues to fly.
The aircraft will be grounded until unions representing pilots,
mechanics, baggage handlers and caterers reach agreements with Qantas
over pay and conditions, Joyce said. Staff will not be paid starting
Monday.
Qantas infuriated unions in August when it said it would
improve its loss-making overseas business by creating an Asia-based
airline with its own name and brand. The five-year restructure plan will
cost 1,000 jobs.
Qantas said in August it had more than doubled annual profit to
AU$250 million but warned that the business environment was too
challenging to forecast earnings for the current fiscal year.
