Qantas engineers strike, eight flights cancelled

Eight Qantas flights have been cancelled as Melbourne aircraft engineers stop work over a pay dispute.

One hundred aircraft engineers walked off the job at 8am (AEST) on Friday and are expected to remain out until midday.

Ten flights were cancelled in Sydney and Brisbane on Thursday as similar industrial action was held in those cities.

Qantas refuses to budge on a pay offer to its engineers, despite continuing industrial action and a warning from unions that the fight could get nasty.

The engineers are calling for a five per cent pay offer - Qantas is offering three per cent.

Seven of the cancelled flights affected Melbourne.

Two flights from Sydney to Melbourne have been cancelled, four from Melbourne to Sydney, and one from Melbourne to Adelaide.

A Sydney to Brisbane flight has also been cancelled.

A Qantas spokeswoman said passengers on all the flights had been notified and alternative travel arrangements made.

She told AAP the disruption to Qantas flights was minimal.

ACTU president Sharan Burrow on Thursday night said negotiations had failed because Qantas management did not recognise unions' collective bargaining powers after the recent change of government.

She said the airline was refusing to negotiate with the engineers.

Qantas announced earlier in the week some jobs may be lost and fares increased, as a result of skyrocketing fuel prices.

Qantas chief executive Geoff Dixon said the airline was on track for an expected profit this year, but fuel prices could cost an extra $2 billion in the next financial year and the airline had $35 billion worth of aircraft on order.

Further stopwork meetings are expected if negotiations cannot be resumed.

Source: businessspectator.com.au