SYDNEY — Chanting “What’s outrageous? Swissport wages!” some 40 airport workers, members of the Transport Workers Union, marched through the international terminal at the airport here March 24. Protests demanding better wages and conditions for workers at Swissport were held in a number of other state capitals the same day.
Workers at Qantas, Australia’s largest airline, are outsourced to three different contractors — Dnata, Menzies and Swissport. Swissport is nonunion, while workers at Dnata and Menzies have union contracts, with higher wages and better conditions.
TWU New South Wales Secretary Richard Olsen addressed the media outside the Sydney airport terminal, where TWU members, many workers with Dnata, rallied. He said that the workload that Qantas is placing on workers is leading to “unsafe working conditions on the tarmac.”
“It’s not unusual, in the heat of the day, to see it reach 50 degrees [122 F],” he said. “It’s a very dangerous position to place workers in, and they need protection. We want to ensure workers’ safety.”
Mustapha Bayad, a trainer with 33 years at the airport, said conditions at Swissport are going backwards. “We need industry-wide safety, not company by company.” One example, he said, is a truck license is no longer required for new hires, who are towing loads of 20 to 30 tons.
At the rally, unionists told this reporter that in December 2024 a young Swissport worker operating baggage machinery at Brisbane airport almost lost his leg. “There are a lot of young new hires at Swissport with no experience,” Bayad said. “They need better training.”
In September 2025 a worker in his 40s died at the Qantas freight terminal, crushed by a towing vehicle. He was employed by the labor hire company Wymap People.
“Workers are standing up today,” said a March 24 TWU media release, “to say enough is enough of risking their lives, their time with family and their health to do a job that doesn’t recognize their value.”