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Qantas has accused the Pilots Association of staging a media stunt over the airline's use of a plane to promote the Wallabies rugby team.
Qantas has confirmed to the ABC that its special Wallabies plane, which is painted in green and gold and used to promote the team, is actually a New Zealand aircraft, registered in Auckland.
The plane is also flown by New Zealand pilots and staffed by New Zealand cabin crew.
Australian pilots say it is evidence that Qantas plans to outsource its operations overseas.
Australian and International Pilot's Association spokesman Nathan Safe, who is also a Qantas long-haul pilot, says fans should be outraged.
"It's exactly like putting Jonah Lomu in a Wallabies jersey and expecting the public not to notice," he said.
The pilots say almost all trans-Tasman Qantas flights are now crewed by New Zealanders who work for lower wages.
It is evidence, they say, that the airline wants to employ inexpensive foreigners from Asia as well.
"Where's it going to end?" Mr Safe said.
"We don't know, so we need to act now to keep Australian jobs in Australia."
The association has now sent a letter to Qantas management, threatening a strike ballot for May 19.
Nobody from Qantas was available for interview, but a spokesman said highlighting the Wallabies plane was a media stunt by pilots set on damaging the Qantas brand.
He said Qantas cannot accept a "veto on change" by a union now threatening to strike.
Meanwhile, Qantas aircraft engineers went to arbitration on Wednesday to negotiate upcoming stoppages which have been called over the outsourcing of their own work.
Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association secretary Steve Purvinas says the action is not designed to hurt Qantas customers.
"It's about Qantas themselves, that's why we've limited our disruptions to one hour to cause minimum disruption to the Qantas network," he said.
Mr Purvinas says Qantas would not guarantee that hangars and maintenance tools would stay in Australia.
"We were hoping to receive at least just a glimmer of hope from Qantas regarding our job security clauses but unfortunately at the end of the day there was no real break through in those discussions," he said.
"The job security clause is one that we hope will fit into our new agreement.
"We can't really say too much more because it was a private conference and to say that there was no resolution is a fairly accurate summary of the day."
Engineers say they will strike for an hour early on Friday, as well as holding two half-hour stoppages on Monday.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2...11/3214253.htm
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