Australia’s Transport Workers’ Union has warned Qantas Airways (ASX:QAN) that 9,000 of the airlines workers are prepared to strike if their job security is not guaranteed.
The union’s national secretary Tony Sheldon has told the Australian Associated Press that workers are demanding Qantas negotiate on job security or face industrial action.
Qantas workers are also asking for a 4 per cent pay rise with superannuation payments.
A spokesperson for the airline has told AAP that the job security claim is a union tactic to remove any flexibility the company has to deal with the volatile nature of the aviation industry.
The Qantas spokesperson says the union's threat comes as the company deals with increasing fuel prices, an underperforming international business and the operational impact of natural disasters in New Zealand, Japan and in Australia.
Mr Sheldon has refuted this defense and suggested that given the airlines latest profit announcement, Qantas must honor a fair bargain with its employees.
For the half year ended on 31 December 2010, Qantas generated a net profit of $239 million.
