
Issue No 111		14 September 2001

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Industrial

Grounded

Ansett workers lay bare their feelings at seeing their company driven into oblivion.


	L-R Maurice, Sue & Greg

At the Sydney rally, three Ansett workers spoke of how they felt about the collapse of the airline.

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Sue Johnson

I have been a proud Ansett employee for 15 years. Myself and many of my work colleagues have seen Ansett come through some milestones. The de-regulation of the airline, the pilots' dispute, the coming and going of many competitors.

We have enjoyed exciting times with Ansett. We have been there doing the Sydney Olympics when we were the proud airline sponsors of those Games.

We have been experiencing devastating times, mainly due to bad mismanagement in the past when our 767 fleet was grounded last Christmas, and again last Easter.

We are a company of dedicated and loyal employees, who over the years have been asked when difficult times have been on our company, to dig deep, work harder, work better, work faster, work smarter. And I believe we have done that when it was needed!

The only people who it seems at these times weren't prepared to work harder, faster, better were our managers or our owners.

Ansett Airlines: The icon, the airline, the employees have been sold out! We have been sold out, not only by executive management, either past or present, but by governments on both sides of the Tasman.

Air New Zealand made an enormous fuss when Singapore Airlines wanted to buy News Limited's holdings of Ansett, because they reckoned they already owned significant ownership of our company and they should have been given first opportunity.

Although they had to borrow an enormous amount of money to do so, they were given the go ahead by our government - our Australian government - to block the Singapore Airlines deal and basically leave us in the predicament we are in today!

An enormous case of classic over-developed ego on Air New Zealand's part - I believe they bit off more than they could chew, where an enormously bigger operation than they ever imagined, or their own operation is.

A few weeks ago Singapore Airlines was still interested in holdings in the Air New Zealand/Ansett Group, but the delay of the New Zealand Government to make a decision as to whether to allow their proud national airline to fall into foreign ownership hands, caused Singapore Airlines to lose interest.

Air New Zealand have managed to bail themselves out, but at the cost of their national pride and I believe ownership. The end result will probably be the same. They will be looking at foreign ownership, but with one major exception - the demise of Ansett Australia.

They have bled us dry basically, to the extent of not paying our union dues to our unions that are owed them. To the extent of not paying health insurance that has been deducted from employees' wages.

More disturbing is that they have made no attempt to save Australian jobs, nor show any concern for the Australian traveling public.

To quote a phrase made famous by one of our previous chief executive officers, Mr Rod Eddington (and don't let him off the hook, he owes a lot too) "Ansett Australia is a great airline but a bad business". Well, who bears the responsibility for that!

I'll tell you. Basically, previous past executive management as far back as TNT and News Limited, as well as Air New Zealand and the Australian federal government.

Ansett employees at the front line! I'm talking flight attendants; pilots; reservations agents; sales agents; check-in staff, baggage handlers; aircraft cleaners.

We can make Ansett a great airline again! What we need is ownership. People who have management skills to take care of the money and are able to manage a great business!

Thank you.

Maurice Bouloux

This is from the heart.

We have been raped! And while we have been raped some people have been standing by and watching the rape take place.

We are a dedicated group of people. We have always come through when things have really gone down. We are passionate about our jobs. We are passionate about the people we deal with - our customers. We are passionate about everything we do.

What has happened is that the government has had ample opportunity to be able to retrieve the damage that was being done to Ansett. They stood back. They did nothing. And they said "we can't do anything".

Anybody can do something. What we need is we need direction. We need somebody who can say we will help you out of this mess.

We allowed a takeover by Air New Zealand, when they could ill afford to take us over. Bigger and better companies like Singapore Airlines came onto the forefront and said, we can help. What did our government do? Say "No, we can't do anything about it, because we need to protect New Zealand."

It's not fair! I'm in an easy boat. I am a single employee. I feel for everybody else who has a child and who has a wife, who has a family and a mortgage.

We need sustained help and I am hoping that those that can do it for us - and it certainly isn't the Howard government, or the Andersons of this world, who don't care! The only thing they care about is themselves.

We need help. We need it badly. We need it now. PLEASE HELP US!!!!

Greg Tosi

I am angry! We have been robbed and plundered, not only by Air New Zealand, by the New Zealand Government - and just to put the knife in - by the Australian government!

We stand here today as a combined unit, willing to fight, and if we let the Australian government know that we are not going to go away, we will win.

This morning I met with the Prime Minister, John Howard, who feels sorry for us. Well, John, that is not good enough. We want our money and we want our jobs!

Thank you.

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  Issue 111 contents

Interview: Amidst the Debris
ACTU President Sharan Burrow surveys the wreckage from a week that rocked the world.

Politics: Consequences of Empire
The horror of the events in New York has not led to all American and international observers feeling committed to bloody revenge.

Industrial: Grounded
Ansett workers lay bare their feelings at seeing their company driven into oblivion.

International: Election Results from East Timor
Fretelin as expected has topped the poll in East Timor�s first free democratic election and the violence predicted by some has not eventuated.

E-Change: 3.2 The Electronic Consumerist
In their latest instalment Peter Lewis and Michael Gadiel ask how effective has the law become in safeguarding the things that really matter to us?

Legal: Howard's Falkland War
Zoe Reynolds chronicles the bizarre tale of the Tampa and how a group of refugees bacame pawns in a bigger political game.

Compo: Round Two Begins
Nancy Searle reviews the Sheahan Report and highlights some of the areas of concern to injured workers.

Economics: Knowledge, Power, Banking
Raj Patel questions whether a new World Bank initiative is actually designed to control the way the Third World thinks.

Review: Political Theatre
The Naked Theatre Company is a youthful, adventurous, professional, Sydney theatre company committed to the development and production of Australian playwrights.

Satire: Howard US Visit "Marginally Overshadowed"
Australian Prime Minister John Howard has said his US trip was a complete success, if slightly upstaged towards the middle.

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» Activists' Notebook

» STOP PRESS: Howard Rolls Abbott on Entitlements