At today's Qantas AGM in Melbourne the Australian Services Union (ASU) will be carrying the message of over 3500 Australians who are calling on Qantas to keep their call centre jobs in Australia.
"Despite making promises that after the closure of the Melbourne and Brisbane call centres and the loss of over 500 jobs, no call centre jobs would be offshored, Qantas has reneged on that promise by announcing in September that 50 jobs that were destined for Hobart were now going to New Zealand," said Linda White ASU Assistant National Secretary.
"This is a disgraceful situation when you consider that the Tasmanian Government has promised Qantas $10.8 million to keep jobs in Hobart and yet almost the same number of new jobs are being created in New Zealand as in Tasmania," said Ms White.
"Australian taxpayers have condemned the Qantas CEO and Board for their decision particularly as Tasmania has the highest unemployment rate in the country and is desperately in need of these jobs," said Ms White.
The Australian Services Union is the largest union in Qantas and the airline industry in Australia with members working in call centres, check in, clerical and administrative areas, IT, operations, load control, sales, freight and engineering and maintenance, and has seen almost 2000 Qantas staff in their ranks lose jobs since February 2014.
"Today the ASU like thousands of Australians is calling on the Qantas CEO and Board to do the right thing and send all the new jobs in their call centre to Tasmania and not New Zealand," said Ms White.
"It is unfair that the CEO and Board keep their jobs yet unemployed Australians in Tasmania don't get the chance for a job in their call centre."
For further comment, please contact:
Linda White, ASU Assistant National Secretary
on 0419 507 809 or airlines@asu.asn.au
The ASU is conducting a Change.org petition to find out what Australians think about the current decision of the Qantas Group to offshore the jobs they promised to Tasmania. More than 900 emphatic comments have so far accompanied the online signatures on the petition. Read our flyer to shareholders providing a tiny sample of those comments: 
Flyer for shareholders at Qantas AGM 2014
The petition is ongoing - you can sign it and record your comments here: http://bit.ly/QF-dont-offshore
