Qantas Engineers on Short-term Strike

SYDNEY, Australia --

A temporary strike Thursday by Qantas engineers disrupted some domestic and international flights as their union met with company officials over a wage dispute.

The engineers are asking for a 5 percent annual pay increase. Qantas has offered them 3 percent.

To press their demand, more than 200 engineers in Sydney and Brisbane are refusing to certify aircraft in the morning hours. Their colleagues in Melbourne plan to strike Friday.

The Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association said the work stoppage was necessary to safeguard pay and service standards.

Qantas prepared for the strike ahead of time by canceling some of its flights for Thursday and Friday. The company said it could not give the number of flights affected until the strike was over later Thursday.

Qantas CEO Geoff Dixon said he would not give in to the engineers' wage demands.

"I think their claim is out of order and we're not going to entertain it," Dixon told Fairfax Radio Network. "We've got the long-term future of the company in mind more than anything else and if it means that some of our passengers have some discomfort for a while that will be the case."

The engineers and their union say Qantas' profit record proves it can afford the salary increase, and they point out that Dixon received a 22 percent pay raise last year.

"Wages have been growing at less than half the rate of profit over a number of years now," Australian Council of Trade Unions President Sharon Burrow told reporters Thursday.

"They're asking for simple maintenance of their living standards," Burrow said of the engineers.

"It's about time Qantas realized the fuel pressures, the price pressures overall cut both ways. They can hedge their price pressures, working families can't and all we're asking for is a real wage increase," she said.

The strike comes a day after Qantas announced it faces a 2 billion Australian dollar ($1.9 billion) increase in its fuel bill in the 2008-09 fiscal year. The airline will retire aircraft, close some routes and shed jobs in an effort to control costs.

Around midday in Sydney, the airline's shares were down 1.2 percent at 3.40 Australian dollars ($3.26).