QANTAS has been secretly sending managers to the US for training in ground-handling operations as it steps up its preparations for looming strikes.   

The airline has been readying its managers since before Christmas for the prospect of industrial action by ground staff, including baggage and ramp handlers in the second half of this year.

The strike-busting training by private contractors at Los Angeles Airport includes loading and unloading aircraft, as well as driving trucks in restricted airport areas.   


''It is very hands-on,'' said one source who has done the training. ''You have to drive the trucks out to the aircraft and do the loading and unloading - and lining the trucks up to the aircraft doors and cargo doors.''

Qantas has to send managers overseas for training because Australian contractors refuse to teach potential strike breakers. It takes about five staff to unload a Boeing 737 aircraft and prepare it for another flight.

A Qantas spokesman confirmed managers had been sent to the US, something the airline had done during industrial disputes over the past 10 years.

''This type of contingency measure is important to ensure our passengers can continue to fly as normal in the event of union-led strikes,'' he said. ''We were forced to use this contingency in the past when the TWU took unprotected industrial action.''

The airline has been engaged in intense negotiations with unions representing both licensed aircraft engineers and 1700 long-haul pilots for months. The engineers are considered more likely to strike than the pilots.

But it is the thousands of Qantas workers represented by the Transport Workers Union who are considered most likely to take industrial action later this year. The airline is already suing the TWU for more than $1 million in damages for wildcat strikes two years ago.

The TWU represents baggage handlers, refuellers and ramp and catering staff.

However, any attempts to use strike breakers is considered a short-term measure because once a passenger jet has been worked on by them it is regarded as ''tainted''. Other Qantas workers are almost certain to refuse to later work on the aircraft.   

Last week, the airline announced cost-cutting measures, including axing managers and flights, in an attempt to combat high fuel prices and the impact of natural disasters in Queensland, Japan and New Zealand on travel demand.

UNIONS are threatening to wage a campaign of "guerilla warfare" against Qantas operations around the world if the airline replaces union labour with managers in the event of a strike by airport ground staff.

Paddy Crumlin, the Maritime Union leader and president of the International Transport Workers Federation, revealed the federation's executive board would convene in London next week to map out a major campaign against Qantas that could include industrial action at airports in the US, Britain, Europe and Japan.

Senior union sources described the campaign as "guerilla warfare" with action potentially including picket lines, go-slows by baggage handlers servicing Qantas flights at international terminals and union protests at check-in counters.

Accusing Qantas of "returning to the jungle" of workplace relations, Mr Crumlin said the campaign would galvanise aviation unions across the globe to take action at every airport at which Qantas operated. "The potential damage to the Qantas brand name is absolutely enormous," Mr Crumlin told The Australian yesterday.


"If they persevere with this extraordinary behaviour, this un-Australian behaviour, it will not only be damaging but disastrous for the company."

He said the campaign would be activated if Qantas brought in managers to replace striking members of the Transport Workers Union. The TWU has threatened industrial action by baggage handlers, ramp handlers and catering staff unless Qantas agrees to its claim for job security clauses curtailing the use of cheaper outside labour.

Qantas last night condemned the union threats.

"This rhetoric from the unions is simply out of control. Our priority is to ensure the Australian travelling public can go on holidays and business trips without disruptions from union-led strikes, which is why we put contingencies in place," company spokesman Luke Enright said. "If the TWU doesn't strike, then we will never have to use our contingency plans; it's as simple as that."

Qantas said it had been training managers at Los Angeles airport to perform the ground-handling duties of union members at domestic airports in the event that TWU members went on strike.    

But the airline denied the training had been undertaken in secret or that the company had been readying its staff since before Christmas for the prospect of industrial action.

Qantas said it had used managers "numerous times" during past industrial disputes, including when the TWU took action at Adelaide airport in 2007 and at Melbourne airport in 2009.

"We are quite open about the fact that we have been training Qantas staff in Los Angeles for the past 10 years for these operational roles -- it's not a secret," Mr Enright said.

"We do this to ensure our customers and operations are not disrupted, and it wouldn't be necessary if the union didn't take industrial action or keep threatening to do so.

"The TWU have shown they will take wildcat industrial action so it's important we have contingencies in place to avoid our customers being disrupted."

But the TWU's national secretary, Tony Sheldon, said the company's training of "strike breakers" at overseas locations replicated the tactics used during the 1998 waterfront dispute. "If management is so sincere that they have nothing to hide, why aren't they doing the training at Tullamarine (in Melbourne) or Mascot (in Sydney)," he said.

"Qantas management really need to come clean on who they are training, who is doing the training and why it has to be done in secret in another country.   

"Scenes of men in balaclavas and german shepherds are still visible in Australia's recent industrial relations history. This situation with Qantas cannot be allowed to escalate to that level just to satisfy the insatiable greed of the few at the top."   

The executive board of the ITF, whose membership covers 781 unions representing more than 4.6 million transport workers in 155 countries, will meet next Wednesday to discuss the campaign against Qantas.

Mr Crumlin, the national secretary of the Maritime Union of Australia, also likened the conduct of Qantas to the tactics used by Chris Corrigan and Patrick during the 1990s waterfront dispute.

Because of a fear of legal reprisals in different countries, Mr Crumlin said the ITF would not direct aviation union affiliates as to what action should be taken at individual airports around the world. He said unions had a strong presence at airports in the US, Britain, Europe and Japan and he expected Qantas services would be targeted at these locations.