Airport bag handling video

[Scarlett]

There are morons in every workplace. Except maybe for some Japanese ones…

I note that many Indonesian airports have a Tv monitor in the middle of the carousel or affixed to a wall showing a camera feed of the baggage belt airside. Partly I guess so that people can see when bags are being offloaded, but also maybe how they’re being offloaded.

 

[JohnK]

You need to redeem points for a better bag...

Or keep redeeming for a new bag often?

I don't think the cost or quality of the bag is relevant.

I commented in one of these threads how I saw Qantas baggage handlers in MEL dropping my luggage and golf clubs (as well as other bags) 2-3 feet onto luggage trolley while unloading. The comment was what did you expect?

I expect my luggage to be treated with respect. Whether you're getting paid $22/hour or $40/hour should not be relevant. If these contractors are placing time limits on employees to get job done then the contract needs to be reviewed and given to a contractor who can achieve efficiently.

On another note why do companies continue trying to get maximum profit and screw the consumer in the process? Surely there's a point where customer focus is just as important.

 

[p--and--t]

Disgraceful, unacceptable behaviour, but unfortunately not a new problem, nor one isolated to QF or Australia

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[Chicken]

I expect my luggage to be treated with respect. Whether you're getting paid $22/hour or $40/hour should not be relevant. If these contractors are placing time limits on employees to get job done then the contract needs to be reviewed and given to a contractor who can achieve efficiently

So next time, when one fare is $79 another is $109, you will book the $109?
At the end of the day, consumers want to pay as little as possible, and businesses want to pay as little as possible. We can fix this problem by setting standards and bargaining, but until then.

 

[nutwood]

I expect my luggage to be treated with respect. Whether you're getting paid $22/hour or $40/hour should not be relevant.

You make a very valid point. If a worker determines the quality of service they provide based on their hourly rate, they are doomed to the lowest levels of employment.

 

[MARTINE]

Or keep redeeming for a new bag often?

I don't think the cost or quality of the bag is relevant.

I commented in one of these threads how I saw Qantas baggage handlers in MEL dropping my luggage and golf clubs (as well as other bags) 2-3 feet onto luggage trolley while unloading. The comment was what did you expect?

I expect my luggage to be treated with respect. Whether you're getting paid $22/hour or $40/hour should not be relevant. If these contractors are placing time limits on employees to get job done then the contract needs to be reviewed and given to a contractor who can achieve efficiently.

On another note why do companies continue trying to get maximum profit and screw the consumer in the process? Surely there's a point where customer focus is just as important.

I think the problem is there is no common ground of how little the flying pax expect to pay for the service and how much the airlines want in profits/bonuses. The gap is filled by PR puffery with motherhood BS about customer experience
But — we are in a place where the uber to the airport is more expensive than the fare.
Does this cover the cost of the flight?
Probably not
Do we wish to return to the past where only the wealthy travelled and the cost was reflected accordingly (aircraft had more space / less seats and reduced demand and better service)
Again probably not

I don't think minimal service standards will change anytime soon whilst airlines are trying to claw back profits and an expectation by the public to pay as little as possible is baked into the system



The behavior of the baggage handlers is unacceptably appalling by any measure.
…….pay peanuts for flights/staff etc ……..

 

[Rich]

So next time, when one fare is $79 another is $109, you will book the $109?

That's a terrible analogy.
Whether you pay $109 or $79, you would expect to be treated respectfully by staff. $109 might get you a meal or checked luggage or more staff per passenger on board, but that wouldn't make it ok for cabin crew to spit in the face of passengers on the $79 flight.

 

[Brissy1]

So next time, when one fare is $79 another is $109, you will book the $109?
At the end of the day, consumers want to pay as little as possible, and businesses want to pay as little as possible. We can fix this problem by setting standards and bargaining, but until then.

Yes set standards - how about don't engage in malicious damage or other criminal behaviour... even if you're on the basic wage.

There are a lot of people on the basic wage, who don't see the need to take it out on their employer's customers.

I think the resentment is that it is a basic wage job that used to be paid at Uni degree salary (and seemingly a management that doesn't know how to engage their workforce, HR101...$ is only a short term motivator)

 

[Cognac]

So next time, when one fare is $79 another is $109, you will book the $109?
At the end of the day, consumers want to pay as little as possible, and businesses want to pay as little as possible. We can fix this problem by setting standards and bargaining, but until then.

This is a terrible argument to make with regards to Qantas, notoriously the most expensive airline to fly domestically in Australia...

 

[Chicken]

Yes set standards - how about don't engage in malicious damage or other criminal behaviour... even if you're on the basic wage.

If you are referencing the person who deliberately lifted the luggage above themselves then tried to throw hard, then yes, I totally agree with you.

If you are referencing the average throwing of luggage of the other luggage handlers, then I think it has to reference the price we pay as passengers.

That's a terrible analogy.
Whether you pay $109 or $79, you would expect to be treated respectfully by staff. $109 might get you a meal or checked luggage or more staff per passenger on board, but that wouldn't make it ok for cabin crew to spit in the face of passengers on the $79 flight.

Spit in the face? No; yet I would not expect anything else thou.

It's like, if I were to go yum cha in somewhere like Cabramatta paying $25 per head, I'm not going to expect the wait staffs to pour my tea slowly and put my food down gently, as going to Oncore.

If you look at the Red Bull video, 3 dudes unloading this amount of luggage multiply by the number of flights in 12 hours, only 3 of them. And this is at $22 per hour. I doubt many people here would even last 1/3 of a shift, let alone not being coughty or giving a damn of the luggage .

Then if you look at the video on Virgin, the dude was on his own. Out in the element, on his own, unloading the plane. How many of you won't go kill someone after 1/3 of a shift at $22 per hour?

I'm not saying it's a good thing, or OK for this to happen, I'm just simply asking, we have all packed a heavy luggage to European winter, how would people feel if they were to be in the shoes of these people?

This is a terrible argument to make with regards to Qantas, notoriously the most expensive airline to fly domestically in Australia...

Sure, but if you look at the cost of your ticket, $120 to fly from Sydney to Melbourne, even a taxi ride to the airport costs this much. This is the same as Kmart is making good profit, but do we really expect anything more than garment workers dying when we pay $2.5 for a T shirt?

 

[nutwood]

In my younger years , I did plenty of manual handling jobs. For me, you do that sort of work for yourself. If you can't take pride in doing an efficient job, you're wasting hours of your life, regardless of the re-numeration. Obviously, if you're feeling exploited, or otherwise pissed off, you slam people's luggage. This brings us back to the central problem.

 

[JohnK]

So next time, when one fare is $79 another is $109, you will book the $109?
At the end of the day, consumers want to pay as little as possible, and businesses want to pay as little as possible. We can fix this problem by setting standards and bargaining, but until then.

No but if 2 Platinums are sitting in 4C and 4D and one paid $79 and the other paid $109 I'd expect that both would receive identical treatment. Right? Even if one paid $79 and the other paid $279 they should still receive identical treatment.

My gripe is with management not the staff. By contractors I was referring to the business that provides airport services. If they're are paying workers $22/hour and making 1.1 billion profit and the service is poor then they should pay workers more and forego some of their profits and provide better service. It is up to management to be on top of workers productivity not leave it to chance.

But unfortunately that is how business is done today and we have come to accept it which in itself is a sad state of affairs.

 

[Vic]

All unions are different but I’ve been in many disputes with the TWU in the past and have absolutely zero respect for them.

My question was a bit more generic than specific to individual unions. Are you forced to work 6 days a week? Do you have a nominal 35 to 40 hour work week, or 60 to 70 hours.

 

[Vic]

Well those staff that did this aren't the redundant ones.

Really? You know they weren't made redundant by Qantas, and then went out and got jobs with the new contractor?

 

[jase05]

My question was a bit more generic than specific to individual unions. Are you forced to work 6 days a week? Do you have a nominal 35 to 40 hour work week, or 60 to 70 hours.

My working week varies between 5 and 7 days and at peak times I can work over 70hrs.
I negotiate my conditions and pay and always have done so.
We were heavily unionised when I started and I was one of the odd ones out who wasn’t but I’d now say the tables have well and truly turned and less than 25% would be in the Union.

 

[billmurray]

Any official comment from Qantas?

 

[justinbrett]

Any official comment from Qantas?

A spokesman commented in the various news stories. Basically said these workers would never touch a Qantas aircraft again.

 

[Chicken]

Any official comment from Qantas?

This is not just Qantas, channel 9 is doing Qantas and Virgin together.

"Baggage handlers stood down after being filmed hurling luggage in Melbourne"

 

[encryptededdy]

Also I suppose the bags aren't necessarily Qantas, right? As I understand it the bag handling companies don't necessarily use the Qantas branded ULDs for Qantas flights only.

 

[Vic]

All these comments about minimum wage, getting what you paid for, are a bit out of touch with the current workplace situation.
take Optometry chain stores, the assistants are all retail workers on minimum wage. They're in there running tests on peoples eyes, working out the positioning of prescriptions in frames, etc. - doing lots of technical work. $20-$25 per hour. Do people expect their glasses to improve their vision?

My working week varies between 5 and 7 days and at peak times I can work over 70hrs.
I negotiate my conditions and pay and always have done so.
We were heavily unionised when I started and I was one of the odd ones out who wasn’t but I’d now say the tables have well and truly turned and less than 25% would be in the Union.

Yep and I once did 180 hours in a fortnight.
But again, that's not the point. You don't work 70 hours every week, ever year; with the mill owner giving you 3 hours off to go to church on Sunday morning. What you choose to do is very different from the base conditions that unions have won for the entire workforce.
The unions have even won the right for you to negotiate your own conditions. But then someone in the situation of being able to negotiate their conditions is working in a very different space. I'm sure you also have a safe workplace. Again thanks to unions.

It's tiresome for people to bash unions when they're benefitting from the power of unions developed over the last 150 odd years.