AMWU members at the Qantas maintenance hanger in Melbourne have joined colleagues in Brisbane and Sydney in declaring their full support for the powerful new Qantas Engineering Alliance.

On Tuesday up to 100 workers from the across the three major engineering unions joined AMWU National Secretary, Dave Oliver, and leading union figures in urging members to support the new alliance.

“Since 1996 Qantas have taken a divide and conquer approach to their industrial relations.

“By getting the endorsement for this alliance, Qantas can no longer play Melbourne off against Sydney, the ETU against the AMWU. It sends a very loud and clear message, you can’t bust us up.”

Mr Oliver said with the support of the united membership, the alliance would bring Qantas management to the table to discuss long term issues facing the maintenance arm of the company.

“Leading up to the negotiations on the next agreement, there are going to issues regarding job security and the very fact that the 747s and 767s will be retired.

“We want to engage in a collective process to ensure job security for our members and to build the capacity for third party maintenance contracts.“

Mr Oliver said the controversial decision by CEO Alan Joyce to ground the Qantas fleet two weekends ago, highlighted the need for the alliance.

“Is this the way the company wants to conduct its industrial relations in the future? If it is, it’s more important than ever before that we stick together”