Aust, unions to ban Fiji flights

Press, 21 October 1987, Page 8

Aust, unions to ban Fiji flights

NZPA-AAP Melbourne Australian airline industry unions will ban flights between Fiji and Australia from November 1, said the president of . the Australian Council of Trdde Unions, Mr Simon Crean, yesterday. The bans by about 20 airline unions would affect Qantas,. Fiji’s national carrier, Air Pacific, and Canadian Airlines, which flies from Vancouver to Sydney via Honolulu and Nandi in Fiji, Mr Crean said.

However, Mr Crean told journalists after a meeting with airline industry unions yesterday that there would be room for exceptions to the bans for some Qantas flights.

The A.C.T.U. would discuss exemptions with Qantas this week for situations such aS people wishing to leave Fiji and for Fijian nationals wishing to return to their country from Aijstralia, he said. Air New Zealand had not resumed flights to Fiji since the coup in May, Continental Airlines had withdrawn and Japan Air Lines (J.A.L.) planned to Withdraw flights at the end of this month, Mr Crean said. Australian maritime and stevedoring unions were now imposing bans

on all shipping trade between Fiji and Australia.

The bans would be imposed by all unions involved in the airline industry except the Australia Federation of Air Pilots, which.is not affiliated with the A.C.T.U.

They would be lifted if the new regime could guarantee the rights of trade unions and their officials.

“Requests have come from the Fijian trade union movement that because of the repressive actions taken by the regime against the trade union movement they want additional support,” Mr Crean said.

“We will be having discussions with Qantas in particular, covering the question of exemptions, in particular ensuring that those people who are already in there are-, assured the opportunity to come out." The move was not intended to attack the Fiji regime for the coup but io answer a specific request by the Fiji Trade Union Congress, Mr Crean said. The unions had made their decision based on what the representatives of Fijian workers wanted, in spite of suggestions that bans would hurt the Fijian people.