Qantas grounds fleet to screw workers

Al Joyce.

Name rings a bell... Al Joyce Plumbing and Heating. Just around the corner from Falling Downs. Put in an outdoor tap for me back in the spring. Good guy.

Apparently Al has moved up in the business world. He's now CEO of Qantas, Australia's national airline. How you get from Al's Plumbing to head up Australia's national airline I don't understand. If I'd taken a few more business courses in university perhaps things would be clear to me. Hell, I could be in the business pages myself!

Anyway, it looks like Al is trying to make a name for himself in the world of big business. Been having a wee spat with some of his unions about off-shoring.  Seems Al wants to rip the guts out of Qantas and put as many jobs as he can in low-wage south asian countries.

Can't say I blame him. The Ausies have been infected by the same want-more virus that has characterised unions in America for 75 years. Al's got it right. Why pay some roly-poly white guy in Perth or Sydney fifty thousand a year when you can get a skinny brown person in Malaysia to do the same work for ten?

So his workers are a bit pissed. They've taken to making fake public service announcements on Qantas flights accusing Al of being a heartless job-killing Australia-hater. Al did the only responsible thing. Shut the entire operation down.

That's costing the company about 25 million a day. Thirteen thousand Qantas customers are stranded all around the world.

Hang in there Al. Victory is just around the corner.

Nice job on the tap, by the way.