Qantas strike: PM Gillard seeks end to dispute

Australian PM Julia Gillard: 'The government is seeking to bring industrial action to an end'

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has called for an end to industrial action which has seen Qantas ground all its international and domestic flights.

Qantas said 68,000 passengers were affected by its grounding of 108 aircraft in 22 cities worldwide.
The airline announced it would also lock out staff involved in industrial action, after months of strikes.
But the pilots union has threatened legal action against the move.
Ms Gillard said the government had applied to regulator Fair Work Australia, "the industrial umpire", to try to get planes back in the air.
The prime minister said she was concerned about damage that could be caused to the national economy.
"I believe Australians want to see this dispute settled. I want to see this dispute settled and we have taken the appropriate action to bring this before the industrial umpire," she told a news conference from the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting (Chogm) being held in the western Australian city of Perth.
Among the stranded passengers were 17 world leaders attending the Commonwealth summit in Perth. Ms Gillard said they had found alternative flights.
Fair Work Australia reconvened an emergency panel at 1400 (0300 GMT) on Sunday, after an earlier hearing was adjourned in the early hours of the morning.
The tribunal can decide whether to order an end to industrial action by both unions and management.

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said his planes could be in the air again by late Sunday if the panel ordered a termination of all industrial action, but he warned an order to simply suspend it - as the unions were seeking - would not be good enough.

The airline - the world's 10th largest - has been hit by a series of costly strikes and other industrial action, which the company said was costing A$15m ($16m) a week.
Pilots have been engaged in protracted talks with management over wages, conditions and outsourcing of jobs to Asia, but they have yet to walk off the job - unlike baggage handlers, engineers and ground staff.
Australian International Pilots Association (AIPA) vice-president Captain Richard Woodward said work stoppages were not in their plans.
"Pilots have made it clear from the start that we would not take industrial action that disrupts passengers. We have stuck to that to this day," he said.
"Alan Joyce, on the other hand, has opted to disrupt passengers in the most devastating way possible.
"Pilots have not been on strike and we are not seeking anything that would damage profitability."
Mr Woodward described Qantas's action as "a cynical act of insanity".
Lock out A statement by Qantas said all employees involved in industrial action would be locked out from Monday evening and flights grounded from 0600 GMT on Saturday.
Aircraft currently in the air would complete their flights, but there would be no further departures.

The airline issued a statement on its Facebook page saying customers booked on Qantas flights should not go to the airport until further notice. The airline said a full refund would be available to those affected.

Relations between the unions and Qantas management started deteriorating in August after the airline announced plans for restructuring and moving some operations to Asia.
Qantas has a 65% share of the domestic Australian market, but has been making heavy losses on its international flights.
The restructuring is expected to mean the loss of 1,000 jobs from its 35,000-strong workforce.
The disruption to flights has also affected a meeting of Commonwealth heads of government in Perth, with reports that members from 17 delegations have been stranded in the city because of the dispute. It comes on a busy travel weekend, just days before the country's biggest horse race, the Melbourne Cup.
'Unbelievable decision' Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce announced the grounding of the airline on Saturday: "The airline will be grounded as long as it takes to reach a conclusion on this."
He said that he would not take "the easy way out" and agree to union demands. "That would destroy Qantas in the long term."
"I'm actually taking the bold decision, an unbelievable decision, a very hard decision, to ground this airline."

Mr Joyce said he made the decision early Saturday and then gained the approval of the Qantas board.

"We are locking out until the unions withdraw their extreme claim and reach an agreement with us," Mr Joyce said. "This is the fastest way to ensure the airline gets back in the air."
"They are trashing our strategy and our brand," he said.
"They must decide just how badly they want to hurt Qantas, their members... and the travelling public."