BUCKLING UP FOR STRIKES

TODAY’S Jetstar strike action, which will lead to the cancellation of four flights at Cairns Airport, is unlikely to be the last.

The budget carrier’s ground crew at Cairns Airport will join more than 250 colleagues at Sydney, Melbourne, Avalon, Brisbane and Adelaide airports today to take protected industrial action.

A Transport Workers Union spokesman said he wasn’t hopeful for a speedy resolution to the dispute with Jetstar, which broke off talks with its workers on February 10.

“The way that Jetstar is operating at the moment, they’re saying ‘this is it, this is all we think you’re worth’,” he said.

“The guys know they’re worth more, and while there’s such a wild disconnect, I just can’t see it getting resolved in the near future.

“For Cairns, we’ve got roughly 20 members there. The majority of the Jetstar workforce (is) across a casual, permanent and part-time basis”

The TWU claimed its lowpaid workers were being forced to accept a workplace agreement that was worse than the agreement they are on now.

It will be the third time since December the airline’s ground crew has taken industrial action at Cairns Airport.

“We have been notified by the Transport Workers Union that it plans to take industrial action that will disrupt travel on Wednesday,” Jetstar said in a statement.

“To minimise the impact of the TWU’s stop-work action, we have developed a contingency plan that protects our customers’ travel, with most customers on impacted flights set to travel within a few hours of their original departure time and all customers getting to their destinations same day.

“To achieve this, we have consolidated some services and moved other customers to Qantas flights where necessary. We contacted affected customers over the weekend to advise them of their new flight details and we thank them for their flexibility.”

Jetstar has cancelled 48 services nationally and moved customers to alternative flights.

Any customers travelling today can also request a full refund or a no-cost change to their travel date prior to flying.