Safe & Secure Skies

Workers in aviation are fighting for good, secure jobs.

Workers in aviation are joining the TWU from right across the industry: cabin crew, security staff, ground handlers, cleaners, caterers, pilots, refuellers and more. We are serving claims on the nation’s wealthy airports to demand better jobs.

We’re fighting for a safe and secure aviation industry that will lift standards for all airport workers. We’re fighting for the same pay for the same job. We’re holding wealthy airports and airlines to account for safety and fairness.

But the structural issues in aviation mean that without government intervention, standards for workers and the travelling public will continue to fall.

Aviation is an industry prone to sudden shocks.

The covid pandemic has shown us that loss of skills in aviation results in airport chaos, with thousands driven out of the industry from lack of support.

During good economic times…

…airports, airlines, shareholders and senior executives see profits and pay packets sky rocket while workers experience low wages growth, poor conditions and insecure work

When issues arise that affect aviation…

…workers bear the brunt through wage freezes, cuts to minimum conditions and outsourcing.

Airlines like Qantas drive down standards by outsourcing to third party companies to avoid collective bargaining, and dictating pay and conditions.

Aviation jobs have become increasingly casualised, insecure, and transitory jobs, where once they were careers for life.

We need a Safe and Secure Skies Commission to rebalance aviation from an industry obsessed with multimillion-dollar bonuses to an industry that is safe, sustainable and fair.

A Safe and Secure Skies Commission must:

• Keep skilled workers in jobs
• Lift standards by holding airports and airlines to account for safety and fairness
• Ensure same job same pay
• Cap executive pay packets and bonuses to invest in workers
• Ensure government funding has conditions attached