QANTAS To Move Maintenance To China

In a move that is causing quite a stir in Australia, QANTAS (Australia's national carrier)  the safest airline in the world (no fatalities and no hull losses) is set to take 2,500 maintenance jobs offshore to China.

This is obviously a cost cutting exercise as most major airlines battle to remain competetive with the escalting fuel costs.

Whilst I am not against cost cutting measures to ensure the survival of a business, I think its a shame to lose so many Australian jobs from such an iconic Australian company.

The move is likely to happen this year, but is already causing trouble with the unions threatening strike action just as the Commonwealth Games are about to kick off.

The unions will no doubt seek to threaten the smooth operation of the Commonwealth Games by threatening to strike, in the hope they will get some leverage. That kind of move will obviously get attention from the world's media, but in my experience and view it simply causes the majority of people in Australia to lose faith in the motives of the unions by threatening something most of will enjoy and share with nationalistic pride.

The scare factor will also come into play as the unions and the maintenance workers will all decry China as low wage, low education and poor quality workmanship. The undertone for everything in the campaign will likely be "Australian's, do you want dodgy Chinese quality workmanship servicing the plane that you fly in? Will you be safe?".

People, don't buy into that rhetoric! China produces state of the art technology, has world class R&D centers and they will actually soon be manufacturing the aircraft you will be flying in. Both Boeing and Airbus already have extensive networks for maintenance here in China. Yes, there will need to be intensive training, but there will be no shortage of QANTAS maintenance engineers willing to come to China for a nice fat expat package for a few years.

In terms of skills and experience already here, I recently met an English chap who establishes maintenance facilities for Rolls Royce (jet engines). He told me that the facilities here for maintenance of the engines is world class and that they can do everything from basic maintenace through to a complete engine rebuild.

So people, don't buy into the scare campaign! Listen to both sides and make a decision that based on the facts when you decide which camp to join.

Personally, I hope the unions will be smart enough to wait until after the games before taking industrial action and I hope that QANTAS can find other methods to reduce costs and keep some of those jobs in Australia.

If I were one of you QANTAS maintenance workers, I would start negotiating with my boss right now about taking on one of the training roles or technical supervision roles based in China that will no doubt be available. Come and live here in China for awile - it will do your career wonders and you can really experience new things. Its a fun place to be and its pretty cheap!

Tags: Shanghai China QANTAS Commonwealth Games Strike Australia