International staff in Australia strike to surprise authorities

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All passengers travelling through Australian airports told to allow for plenty of time as Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) kick off two weeks of intermittent strikes at all international airports.

CPSU members will undertake two weeks of rolling stoppages across Australia that will begin on Monday 9 October as strikers due to take action in 30 minute blocks all day every day throughout the period.

The move will cause severe disruption leaving authorities with little opportunity to form a contingency plan, ultimately maximising the impact of the strikes.

The protests form part of a campaign to pressure the government to renegotiate its bargaining policy, which restricts pay rise and calls for cuts, or failing that, an appeal to the Fair Work Commission.

The CPSU national secretary, Nadine Flood, argued that the strikes were necessary because the government had refused “to sit down and find a fair and sensible solution.

“The government is using nasty ‘starve them out’ tactics refusing to talk and keeping these workers on a three-year pay freeze,” she continued.

“For almost three years all immigration and border force staff have seen is proposals to cut their existing rights and conditions and even cut some officers’ current take-home pay.”

When the strikes were announced earlier in the month the Tourism and Transport Forum (TTF) demanded that the CPSU and the government resolve the ongoing three-year industrial dispute.

The TTF’s chief executive, Margy Osmond, said: “We need to be presenting our best face to our visitors not embroiling them in a domestic workplace conflict.”

The strikes are expected to create major disruption throughout their two weeks of action and it looks unlikely that the government will move from its position of reluctance to give into the CPSU’s demands.