The 1989 Australian pilots' dispute was one of the most expensive and dramatic industrial disputes in Australia's history. It was co-ordinated by the

Australian Federation of Air Pilots The Australian Federation of Air Pilots (AFAP) is a professional association and industrial organisation for commercial pilots in Australia. As a professional association, it provides pilots the opportunity to meet and discuss aviation-related ma ...

(AFAP) after a prolonged period of wage suppression, to support its campaign for a 29.5% pay increase.An Unhealed Wound: the history of the 1989 Australian Airline Pilot's dispute
''

Radio National Radio National, known on-air as RN, is an Australia-wide public service broadcasting radio network run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). From 1947 until 1985, the network was known as ABC Radio 2. History 1937: Predecessors an ...

'' 17 June 2001 The dispute began impacting the public on 18 August 1989 with pilots working "9-5" and was never formally resolved due to the mass resignation of pilots, cancellation of their award and de-recognition of their union. As part of this campaign, AFAP pilots imposed on their employers (

Ansett Australia Ansett Australia was a major Australian airline group, based in Melbourne, Australia. The airline flew domestically within Australia and from the 1990s to destinations in Asia. After operating for 65 years, the airline was placed into adminis ...

, East-West, Ipec and

Australian Airlines Australian Airlines was a full-service airline based in Australia, servicing Australian and Asian destinations between 2002 and 2006. It was an all-economy, full-service international leisure carrier, and was a wholly owned subsidiary of Qan ...

) a limitation on the hours they were prepared to work, arguing that if they were to be treated in exactly the same way as other employee groups (the stance adopted by

the government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...

), their work conditions should also be the same. This initially took the form of making themselves available for flying duties only within the normal office working hours of 9am to 5pm. The dispute severely disrupted domestic air travel in Australia and had a major detrimental impact on the tourism industry and many other businesses. A few days earlier,

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

Prime Minister

Bob Hawke Robert James Lee Hawke (9 December 1929 – 16 May 2019) was an Australian politician and union organiser who served as the 23rd prime minister of Australia from 1983 to 1991, holding office as the leader of the Australian Labor Party (A ...

declared a national emergency and allowed

Royal Australian Air Force "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = RAAF Anniversary Commemoration ...

(RAAF) planes and pilots and overseas aircraft and pilots to provide services.Cabinet papers 1988-89: pilots' strike; orbital engine; POW pension; Big Brother
''

Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper i ...

'' 1 January 2015 The RAAF provided limited domestic air services to ease the impact of the dispute. The employers recruited new pilots from overseas, and for a while, some overseas airlines operated charter

Boeing 737 The Boeing 737 is a narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Renton Factory in Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the twinjet retains the 707 fuselage width and six abreast seating with two un ...

and

757 757 may refer to: * Boeing 757: a narrow-body airliner * AD 757: a year * 757 BC: a year * 757 (number): a number * Area code 757 Image:Area code 757.png, The area colored red indicates the southeast corner of Virginia served by area code 757 po ...

aircraft on east coast routes, and travel between

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

and the East Coast was also possible via Singapore, using international flights. The dispute was superficially resolved after the mass resignation of a significant number of domestic airline pilots to avoid litigation from the employers. The RAAF ceased ‘public transport operations’ on 15 December 1989, by 31 December 1989 regular leasing of seats on international flights ceased and, by 12 January 1990, the government ceased its waiver of landing charges. The airlines were able to slowly return to normal schedules as they hired replacement pilots. Thus no specific date can be set for when the dispute stopped impacting flights, tourism and the economy. Ansett, Australian Airlines, East-West and Ipec no longer exist. East-West was a subsidiary of Ansett in 1989, and was absorbed fully in 1993. Australian Airlines merged with

Qantas Qantas Airways Limited ( ) is the flag carrier of Australia and the country's largest airline by fleet size, international flights, and international destinations. It is the world's third-oldest airline still in operation, having been founded ...

in 1992. Ipec was acquired by

Toll Holdings The Toll Group is an Australian-based subsidiary of Japan Post Holdings with operations in transportation, warehousing and logistics in road, rail, sea and air. It has two divisions; Global Forwarding, Global Logistics. History In 1888, Al ...

in 1998. The dispute crippled the Australian Federation of Air Pilots and cleared the road to airline industry deregulation.

References

External links

An Troops as Strokebreakers

Parliamentary Library of Australia The Parliamentary Library of Australia (or Commonwealth Parliamentary Library) is the library of the Parliament of Australia, administered by its Department of Parliamentary Services. It provides library services to elected officials, namely memb ...

References

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