Qantas Ground Crews Vote to Strike on Regional Ramps

Qantas Ground Services workers voted 97 percent on Monday to authorise stoppages of one hour to 24 hours. The Transport Workers Union said that result gives over 600 workers the right to walk off in the coming weeks.

Their shifts cover Qantas Freight, including a large share of Australia Post work, and the regional QantasLink network. Qantas said these staff do not service mainline or international flights. No stoppage date is set. The union must give three days’ notice, and both sides are due back at the Fair Work Commission on 18 September.

Freight Ramps, Not the International Jetway

Three hundred and fifty QGS staff cast ballots. The 97 percent figure is the share who said yes, not a walkout already underway. A protected action ballot is a legal licence. Work still starts only after written notice naming the action and the day it begins.

QGS is a wholly owned Qantas subsidiary. The union says it was set up under former chief executive Alan Joyce to hire casual and part-time ground staff on lower terms than the old Qantas Airways Limited agreement. After about 1,800 ground jobs were outsourced in 2020, in a move later ruled unlawful, the remaining QGS crews were left on freight and QantasLink ramps.

TWU national secretary Michael Kaine put the grievance in those terms, not as a bid to ground the long-haul fleet.

These ground workers don’t want to go on strike, but after being sold a false promise that this airline would finally treat them with respect, they’ve got no other choice.

Michael Kaine, TWU national secretary, 1 September statement

Kaine said Joyce created new companies inside the group to pit workgroups against each other, and that new management has refused to end that practice. The union wants job security, a pay rise after years of wage freezes, and the scattered crews brought back under a single Qantas banner. A separate vote is soon to open for more than 100 Australian Air Express staff, who sit in another wholly owned Qantas subsidiary and want the same consolidation.

Qantas Ground Services Was Built to Pay Less

The ballot is the latest turn in a split that began when Qantas stopped hiring ground staff onto its main agreement and parked new starters in QGS. The 2020 outsourcing then pushed most remaining airport work to contractors. QGS, on the union’s telling, is what was left.

HOW THE GROUND WORK WAS SPLIT

1. 2008: Qantas sets up Qantas Ground Services to hire part-time ground staff on lower pay and conditions than the main airline agreement.
2. 30 November 2020: Qantas announces the outsourcing of remaining ground handling and fleet presentation, other than QantasLink regional work in Sydney, affecting about 1,800 staff.
3. 2021 to 2022: The Federal Court finds the outsourcing unlawful because it was taken to stop workers using their bargaining rights.
4. August 2025: The court imposes a $90 million penalty, the largest employer fine in Australian labour law.
5. 29 July 2026: The Federal Court is still hearing applications over the compensation scheme still under court orders.
6. 31 August 2026: Remaining QGS workers vote 97 percent to authorise protected stoppages of one hour to 24 hours.

TWU health and safety delegates in New South Wales recently served 14 provisional improvement notices over alleged safety failings at Qantas Freight. The union said investigations continue after a labour-hire Qantas Freight worker was killed last year. Qantas said it takes safety and conditions seriously and has been meeting the union for months.

What Regional Passengers Should Watch

A QantasLink ticket is closer to this dispute than a Sydney to Los Angeles seat. QantasLink finished June with 127 aircraft, from Q400 turboprops to A220 jets, and those regional ramps are the passenger side of the QGS roster. A one-hour stoppage can miss a bank of short-sector departures; a 24-hour stoppage would wipe a day’s flying at a thin regional port where there is no second wave of aircraft.

Qantas said it has well developed contingency plans to limit any effect on customers and operations if it is notified of action. It also said the carrier will be told well in advance. That is the three-day notice rule doing its work: passengers get a short window, not a surprise on the morning of travel.

WHAT TO WATCH ON A QANTASLINK TICKET

• The aircraft type: Turboprop and smaller-jet itineraries into regional ports sit on QantasLink ramps this ballot actually covers.
• The notice window: No stoppage can start until the union gives at least three days’ written notice naming the action and the date.
• The 18 September talks: A deal at the Fair Work Commission would shrink near-term schedule risk before any notice can be served.
• Bags and freight on the same aircraft: QantasLink holds also carry cargo, so a ramp stoppage can hit both passengers and parcels on one rotation.

Mainline domestic jets and international widebodies are handled by a different ground cohort, much of it contracted out after 2020. A traveller on those services is watching a different roster. The people who should treat this as a live watch item are the ones connecting through regional Australia in the days after 18 September, if notice is then served.

Australia Post Rides the Same Freight Ramps

The quieter exposure is cargo. Qantas Freight describes its domestic system as the largest domestic air freight network in the country, with international services to more than 45 destinations. The union says QGS crews now perform that work, including a large share of Australia Post volume.

Australia Post and Qantas renewed partnership for another 10 years on 27 July, the same week freight flights began at Western Sydney International’s 24-hour cargo precinct. The postal group dates the air link to 1922, when Qantas carried 106 letters on its first commercial flight in Queensland. Qantas told investors it had secured that 10-year extension and that Freight had opened at the new airport in July to support e-commerce demand.

The dedicated freighter fleet at 30 June was 10 aircraft: six A321 converted freighters, two A330 freighters, and two 747-400Fs. If QGS ramps stop, even for an hour, the pinch is on sortation and uplift at the freight terminals those crews staff, not on a check-in hall at Los Angeles. A later Australian Air Express ballot would put a second Qantas freight subsidiary on the same path.

Pilots Settled Weeks Before the Ground Vote

Long-haul pilots had already tested the same Fair Work path. About 1,700 pilots on the A380, A330, and 787 fleets voted in early August to authorise industrial action, then reached an in-principle deal with Qantas on 6 August. AIPA president Andrew Marshall said a broad agreement had been reached and that the union hoped to formalise it in the coming days. Qantas said the deal would deliver pay increases, rostering improvements, and more career progression while balancing the needs of the business.

The ground ballot closed less than a week after the group posted its full-year numbers. Underlying profit before tax was $2.064 billion for the year ended 30 June, down $330 million from $2.394 billion. Qantas reported a $420 million net hit from the Middle East conflict and still booked $700 million returned to shareholders, including a $300 million final dividend of 19.8 cents a share to be paid on 14 October. About 25,000 non-executive employees are to receive $1,000 in shares.

Kaine said the board awarded itself a 17 percent pay rise and that Qantas was “crying poor over $2 billion in profits.” That 17 percent figure is the union’s claim; Qantas has not matched it in its public statements on the QGS talks. Chief executive Vanessa Hudson, in the job since 2023, called the year a strong result in a hard fuel market. The airline has not published the dollar value of its QGS pay offer.

WHO THIS BALLOT ACTUALLY COVERS

The table is the map passengers keep getting wrong. A “Qantas strike” headline still reads as the whole airline. This vote is one subsidiary, on two products, with a second freight group lining up behind it.

Talks Return to Fair Work on 18 September

Qantas said discussions through the Fair Work Commission have been constructive and that negotiations are continuing. A spokesperson said the airline remains committed to an agreement with QGS employees that includes annual pay rises, and that the focus is on pay and more full-time opportunities, the items staff have said matter most. The exact offer is still unpublished.

WHAT WE KNOW

• The vote: 97 percent of 350 ballots authorised stoppages of one hour to 24 hours for the QGS unit of more than 600 workers.
• The work: QGS covers Qantas Freight and QantasLink and does not service mainline or international flights.
• The calendar: Both sides are due at the Fair Work Commission on 18 September, and any action needs three days’ notice.
• The airline line: Qantas says annual pay rises and more full-time jobs are on the table and that contingency plans are ready.

WHAT IS UNCONFIRMED

• A strike date: None has been named, and none can start until notice is served.
• The pay offer: Dollar amounts, staging, and whether Qantas will accept a single-banner deal remain unpublished.
• The AAE ballot: The union says a vote for more than 100 Australian Air Express workers is soon to commence; no result exists yet.
• The size of any delay: Contingency plans are claimed, not tested in public against a 24-hour QantasLink or freight stoppage.

Friday 18 September is 16 days from Wednesday 2 September. If those talks fail and the union then serves notice, the earliest stoppage would fall the following week, on the freight floor and at QantasLink gates, which is where this workforce actually stands.