The Shareholders have overwhelmingly voted in favour of giving Joyce the authority to shut Qantas down - yet thousands of people are now stranded and unable to meet their commitments.
Joyce wants the PM to intercede, which Gillard is refusing to do. How can the government intervene when they are supported by the unions, but if Qantas management gets their way - we can say goodbye to thousands of Australian jobs.
You have to agree with the unions quest to keep Australian jobs safe, but on the other hand if a company can't afford to meet the union pay demands - their members won't have a job.
There is no end in sight to the Qantas industrial dispute that has crippled Australia's aviation industry and left thousands of passengers stranded.
An emergency Fair Work Australia hearing into the Qantas dispute, convened in Melbourne, went until 1.30am AEDT today before adjourning until 2pm today, when union representatives will question Qantas executives about the timing of yesterday's mass grounding.
Mr Strambi, group executive of airline operations, told the hearing that demands by engineers for Australian servicing of Airbus A380 aircraft were not economical.
Mr Strambi said Qantas's competitors "have access to cheaper labour" and that a lack of flexibility in servicing would limit "the ability of the business to adapt to new technology".
He told the Fair Work hearing that recent industrial action had cost Qantas about $68 million and pushed customers to competing airlines.
"We're seeing a really big impact in our forward bookings," he said. "It makes sense. If passengers can't be sure... They're less likely to book with us."
Mr Strambi put forward an internal risk assessment report as evidence, which outlined possible consequences and benefits of a staff lockout. He also described pilots as a group of people who like control and said a grounding and lockout would take power and control away from the pilots' union.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-new ... z1cCltvF8R