Qantas dispute cools

Press, 3 February 1981, Page 1

Qantas dispute cools

By

LES BLOXHAM,

" ". Travel editor

The 'danger ~of an immediate i strike -“grounding all Qantas flightis lessened yesterday;when,’: the stew? ardsfiatzthe -'-cehtre’: of? the dispute . to resume ■ negotiatibhs.4’ with: the•'.airTlne.‘

But ’the-,stewards; issued a; Warning; after .-a three-

hour stop-work meeting at Sydneythat they- would not man the airline’s new Boeing 747 ; special - per-formance-jumbo- jet -;if. a “conclusive r ?; agreement” was: :not . reached- by tomorrow evening. The-;new. jet, Is: ’ scheduled to, begin ; its Tasman services out of/ Wellington omThursday.-,:, '< ~

The airline's 1600 stewards want an extra $2O a week. The/ also want bigger crews to be. allocated for the 7475. P. flights. Mr Patrick Punch, Qantas’s news services manager, told “The Press” from Sydney last evening that .3600 ; passengers were delayed while the stewards held their stop-work meeting. Six flights had to be rescheduled to depart after 6 p.m. /.A He said that the airline would go ahead with its Wellington. , service on Thursday,' J provided the crew reported for work. The only Qantas flight to Christchurch . scheduled for today is QFS9 f™ ll Sydney at 6.20 pm. The airline will not know until this afternoon whether it will arrive on time. The : aircraft is ’ not scheduled to depart for Melbourne until 10 a.m. tomorrow.