Firstly, right off the bat Windsor and the CSG (Coal Seam Gas) thing! My god get over it! The state owns everything more than 6ft below your land. Whether it is fair or not is beside the point, that's the law move on. I have worked for a company that is very heavily involved in CSG and I can tell you that all the companies that are involved in it are doing everything in their power to ensure there is minimal impact on the land that the farmers occupy. Secondly, if you want to get into the sustainability thing, lets talk about what these companies now have to do with the incredibly purified water that comes out with the Gas. THEY HAVE TO PUT IT BACK IN THE GROUND! Why? because apparently it is to pure for the water systems around the plants and some microscopic organisms were getting weak shells! This water could have solved most of the drought issues of a few years ago but no instead of building a pipeline to pump this pure water around state Governments decide to build enormous, expensive, unsustainable desalination plants. And now, thanks to some bleeding heart, they have to go to the expense of putting it back in the ground, BECAUSE IT IS TOO GOOD! what a joke.
Secondly, our economy relies on this CSG, people are so quick to say we should shut down this mine or that gas plant as there is a potential for impact on history or the environment. One, the key word here is potential, it may not. Two, what about the job creation? what about the potential to get some of regional Australia into high paying jobs? what about the potential for the economy and the money that is generated that can be poured back into said community? Have you seen Roma lately? I was up there at the beginning of the year after not having been there in almost 10 years and I can tell you right now that all the money that is pouring into that town has greatly improved it and I'm sorry but there is no way the agriculture industry could have done it, put simply it didn't before it damn well won't now. Yet Mr Windsor thinks it is fine to stop this potential economic boom in regional Australia, because it might mildly inconvenience a few farmers.
Ok next
If we are talking recent News we have to talk Qantas, and since I am potentially 10 days away from finishing a degree in HR to not comment on it would be remiss.
Firstly, let me be clear I am by no means a Unionist, I think they are a waste of space and do nothing but stifle our economy. Secondly, I think Upper level management is beginning to get short sighted and greedy and this is just as bad if not worse.
The whole Qantas thing is a mess of monumental proportions.
1. Since when did a Union have the right to come in and dictate business strategy? and I'm sorry but this includes the distribution of the workforce.
2. What idiotic board would decide it is ok to provide a $3million pay increase to a CEO that has done NOTHING I repeat NOTHING towards value creation in a company?
Put these two together and all of a sudden no-one has the moral high ground and no-one is thinking about the long term viability of both the company and the people. Here is my reasoning on why everyone in this dispute is being selfish.
THE UNIONS
My god, what high horse are they standing on? There are two fundamental issues with their argument and it is these that make them lose all credibility for me.
1. They think they are entitled to significant pay increases, even though they are already paid higher than anyone else in the industry, without any productivity concessions. I'm sorry, what? You essentially want Qantas to hand the Engineers, Pilots and Baggage handlers more money because you said so. Now the Unions will jump up and down saying it's only 2.5% to keep in line with inflation, but let me ask you this, your employees are already paid at least 5% more (http://finance.ninemsn.com.au/newsbusiness/aap/8368932/virgin-ceo-says-his-staff-paid-well) than other airlines so why should Qantas give you a pay rise? are you performing better than the other airlines?
2. The Unions want job security for their members, fair enough, but the price of labour is directly imported onto the price of a ticket. When Qantas wants to compete internationally it needs to be able to lower costs, this means streamlining and improving operation processes, which inevitably makes some roles redundant, and lowering the cost of labour where possible, this means private contracting and outsourcing to other countries, why? Because the archaic, protectionist labour laws in Australia make our workforce uncompetitive. The Unions want their members jobs to be guaranteed and, put simply, that is impossible. Who can truly say their job is guaranteed in private industry? the whole point of it being private is to lower costs and improve processes so the customer gets the best product for the cheapest price. To do this a company needs flexibility and the ability to run its own business, you want a guarantee go work for the government.
It's clear the Unions want things done like they were 50 years ago when Australia was a closed market and there was government intervention everywhere, in today's globalised world this is a fast track to poverty. They want to step in and tell Qantas how to run it's business and when Qantas says no they chuck a hissy fit and take industrial action.
ALAN JOYCE AND THE BOARD
I was on their side through this I really was................ and then he took the completely undeserved pay rise.
I have just gone on and on about how the Unions can not expect something for nothing with regards to pay, and that was his argument as well and it made sense, until he gave himself a very public pay rise. FOOL! I understand that the job market for CEO's is very competitive and to attract the best we have to pay for it, but seriously what exactly has he done? The share price is sinking, he can't control his workforce without running to Fair Work and the reputation of the company has been diving since long before this happened and yet he still gets a pay rise!? what you couldn't live off 2Mill pa for another 12 months and wait for the media storm to finish? You had the moral high ground about wages and productivity and strategy and then completely blew it all away by high jacking the AGM and ensuring a pay rise. You have no clout, no class and are being just plain greedy. You could have easily one the argument until you did that and now the whole of Australia thinks you're nothing but a money grubbing bastard and their right, well done, you might win in the courts and with Fair Work but the damage to yours and Qantas' brand has been done and the blame for that rests squarely on you and your idiotic undeserved pay rise.
The lock out was justified in my opinion, it is really the only type of industrial action available to a company and it was used to perfection. It brought the whole thing to a head and stopped the unjustified hissy fits by the unions. The politicking that has happened after, about who knew what when, is irrelevant and will rightly be ignored by the general public.
Simply put everyone who has been involved in this is in the wrong. They all want to blame each other, they all think that money grows on trees and, at the end of the day, the real loser from this is Qantas as a company and the Customer. Everyone is wanting something for nothing from this company and they just assume that the company can compensate. The unions want pay increases that are unnecessary and unjustified and Alan Joyce gave himself 3mill pa extra for doing squat. So the moral high ground for both parties there is gone. The only thing that is left is the Unions want a say in the strategy of the business and how it deploys its workforce, it CAN NOT have this power, Bluescope Steel anyone? Everyone needs to get over this go back to work and get on with the business of restoring the company, Alan Joyce needs give back his undeserved pay rise ( I know I'm dreaming) and the Unions need to stop harrasing the company about outsourcing and wait until the rest of the airline industry has caught up to Qantas in pay levels.
Yes, Australian jobs will go, but this to is the a problem of the Unions making, they simply want to much money, it is through their incredible ineptitude at realising how the wage directly impacts the cost of living that things are so expensive in this country. How about, instead of focusing on wages the Unions focus on workplace conditions and intangible benefits so that Australia can start to compete internationally in the labour market? Just a thought. You can't have your cake and eat it to, you want high wages, fine except some offshore outsourcing of labour, you want jobs in Australia fine stop increasing the wage without increasing productivity, its that simple, sort of (lol).
any ways just my thoughts on a couple things doing the rounds in the news, I'm sure plenty of people will disagree with me but hey that's the fun of the internet. Please remember that this is all opinion and if there are any grievous factual errors I am more than willing to listen and change the post if it changes my mind.
cheers for listening to my rant.
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