Ideas@TheCentre
Good morning, this is your pilot striking
Labour competition is not to be feared but encouraged. In what has been a lengthy dispute between Qantas and its long-haul pilots over pay increases and job security, the pilots have voted overwhelmingly to pursue industrial action, including possible strikes.
The demands were in response to Qantas hiring around 100 pilots from its New Zealand subsidiary Jetconnect for $50,000 less than their Australian counterparts.
The decision to employ cheaper Jetconnect pilots seems a no-brainer since Qantas doesn’t have to pay superannuation to its NZ employees and the exchange rate is quite favourable.
The pilots’ demands are two-fold: a) guaranteed jobs, a pay rise, and free flights on top of heavily reduced airfares for Qantas pilots, and b) rate parity for all Qantas pilots, including those in the low-cost subsidiaries Jetconnect and Jetstar. But giving in to these demands would drive up fares, cost jobs, and may render low-cost airlines unprofitable.
Pilots are not the low-skilled, vulnerable blue-collar workers usually associated with organised labour. They are highly skilled, highly paid professionals who do not require union clout to secure minimum pay and conditions. In fact, Qantas’s long-haul pilots are among the highest paid in the industry, with the average Boeing 747 captain making $350,000 a year.
Instead, it seems these pilots are trying to secure benefits for themselves at the expense of non-unionised workers and consumers. The reality is that the airline industry is a highly competitive and globalised business, and if pilots from New Zealand and elsewhere are prepared to do the same job as their Australian counterparts for less, why shouldn’t they? Labour competition is not to be feared but encouraged since it sorts the hardest workers while lowering costs and benefits that are eventually passed on to consumers via lower prices.
These pilots are complaining that they’re not paid enough, want more fringe benefits, and can’t handle a little competition. Really, this is all a bit rich for some of the highest-paid professionals operating what the CEO of RyanAir describes as a glorified bus service.
Alexander Philipatos is a Policy Analyst with The Centre for Independent Studies.
