00:01Well, this 24-hour strike across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth is over a long-running
00:07pay dispute between unionised Qantas freight workers and the airline itself.
00:13Now, we're expecting about 600 workers to walk off the job today and they're demanding
00:19secure employment, fairer wages and also safer working conditions.
00:25Let's take a listen to what one of the union heads had to say earlier today.
00:30You've got to remember, this is a workforce that got this company through COVID.
00:34They stuck with this company through thick and thin when times were tough, they went through
00:38the wage cuts, they went through the wage freezes, you know, they had wages policies before that
00:43of no more than 3% a year.
00:45Unfortunately for these people now, they are in a worse state in real terms than they were
00:50a decade ago before COVID.
00:51Qantas says it's got contingency plans in place to make sure that there's little impact
00:56to customers across the country today, but they said there may be small impacts to Qantas
01:03linked services to regional parts of New South Wales flying out from Sydney.
01:08In a statement, they say they're committed to providing the substantial pay increase that
01:13workers are asking for.
01:15the same things they want to get.
01:15But then, when we're on the line, they say that the correct way of getting on the right side of
01:17They think that they're the same thing where they're going to do.
