Fresh strikes to hit Qantas

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Qantas warned on Monday of fresh disruption after 4,000 ground staff announced their second strike in as many weeks, hitting thousands of travellers on one of Australia's busiest weekends of the year.

Qantas said Transport Workers' Union (TWU) members would strike for one hour on Friday over stalled contract talks, accompanied by a one-hour stoppage by aircraft engineers in Melbourne.

Engineers in Sydney will strike for an hour on Tuesday, Qantas added, the same day border security staff are due to stop work at the nation's airports, delaying international passengers.

Qantas media chief Olivia Wirth said the action was calculated for maximum effect, with the plans of holidaying families and thousands of sports fans, including some from New Zealand, expected to be impacted.

It will be a three-day weekend in Australia and the popular Australian Rules football and National Rugby League codes are both holding their grand finals -- the latter featuring the New Zealand Warriors team.

"This is one of our busiest weekends of the year with tens of thousands of people travelling around Australia for the football and for the school holidays on Friday alone," Wirth said.

"The union knows this and they are trying to cause maximum disruptions to passengers." Qantas was still trying to establish the full impact of the strikes, but a similar two-hour walkout last week forced the delay or cancellation of 55 flights, affecting 6,000 passengers.

Wirth said the engineers' strikes alone were expected to delay 'several thousand' travellers. Thousands of Customs officers are due to walk off the job for up to two hours during the morning peak Tuesday.

Quarantine inspectors have also called two-hour stopwork meetings during the morning's early rush.

"Our members only take industrial action as a last resort, but unless we see a pay deal that matches the rising cost of living, the level of industrial action could increase in coming weeks," warned Nadine Flood from the Customs agents' Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU).

Qantas ground staff are arguing for pay and pension increases in their new contracts as well as job security as Qantas undertakes an Asia-focused restructure which will see 1,000 airline staff laid off.

Unions have accused the airline, which last month doubled its annual net profit to Aus$250 million (US$257 million), of preparing to outsource jobs to cheaper labour markets in Asia in a bid to improve its bottom line.

Pilots and engineers are engaged in similar contract disputes with Qantas.