SYDNEY — “What’s outrageous? Airport wages!” chanted 20 plane refuelers as they walked off the job in a four-hour strike at Ampol Aviation at the airport here Aug. 23. Night and afternoon shift workers also stopped work.
The workers “have only had a 3.5% pay increase over the last three years,” Richard Olsen, New South Wales/Queensland state secretary for the Transport Workers Union, told a press conference attended by the striking workers, “while the cost of living keeps going up.” They are among the lowest paid in the industry.
The workers are also fighting for better part-time hours and more full-time positions. Only 24 out of the 68 workers are full time. Ampol, a major petroleum company here, recorded an annual profit of 1.7 billion Australian dollars ($1.15 billion) in the 2023 financial year.
The union met with the company 15 times over the past six months, Olsen said, but Ampol has refused to budge. This is the first time the workers have taken strike action.