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TAA flights
affected by
strike
Engineers walk off
MELBOURNE, Mon
day. - All Boeing 727 jets
and Lockheed Electra air
craft operated by TAA were
grounded when the com
pany's 48 flight engineers
walked off the job at mid
night tonight.
An urgent conference sum
moned tonight at which represen
tatives of the Australian Airline
Flight Engineers Association,
TAA and Ansett-ANA were
present, failed to avert the
stoppage.
The strike follows the break-down
of negotiations between the associa
tion and the two domestic airlines
over salaries and conditions.
At this stage only TAA is affected
by the strike decision although An
sett-ANA will almost certainly be
affected later in the week unless
agreement is reached.
The decision that the stoppage
would proceed was announced at the
end of negotiations tonight by the
association's general secretary, Mr
John Forrester.
Boeing 727s and Electras are the
only aircraft operated by TAA which
require flight engineers.
The 727 flights to Perth and New
Guinea would not operate during the
stoppage. The Electra flights between
Cairns and Brisbane and Brisbane to
Darwin have been cancelled.
Normal serivccs would be main
tained throughout the rest of the
network by DC-9 jets, Viscount and
Fokker Friendship aircraft.
In a statement on the breakdown
in negotiations, TAA said it had
agreed some time ago to discuss
salaries and conditions for flight
engineers although the current award
had some considerable time to run.
"Their log of claims has been
lodged with the arbitration court
which ordered the parties into con
ference.
Arbitration
"Commissioner Portus has con
vened a hearing of the dispute for
10.30am on Wednesday.
"In defiance of this the association
has ordered a stoppage.
"This is an industry dispute and
TAA and Ansett-ANA have used
their best endeavours to secure agree
ment.
"This has not been successful and
TAA will. be affected in the first
instance and Ansett-ANA will be
similarly affected later in the week".
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