Canberra airport guards fight for job security while overseas owned security contractors compete in "race to the bottom" at privatized airports
Written by: Ned K. on 25 January 2025
(Source: www.moneycontrol.com)
The Canberra Times reported in their 24 January newspaper that Canberra Airport aviation security guards were fighting for job security due to a change in airport security contract services from Certis Group to MSS.
The new aviation security contract at Canberra Airport starts on 1 March 2025. The new contractor MSS plans to pick and choose who it employs from 1 March and also plans to employ security guards on less pay and conditions than the current guards won during their employment with Certis Group. The Canberra Times interviewed one guard with more than 10 years' service at the airport. She said that many of the over 100 Certis employed guards had not been offered work by the in-coming contractor MSS.
The Canberra Times also reported that the guards' union representative, United Workers Union Director Lyndal Ryan said that MSS's track record should have excluded them from the contract bidding process and that "ultimately, it's on Canberra Airport decision-makers to properly scrutinize the contractors they allow to operate in high-security risk areas of the airport, and MSS does not pass the pub test in regards to this".
Just who are the "Canberra Airport decision-makers" and who are Certis and MSS?
The Canberra Airport, like all major city airports, is a privatized airport. The airport was built on land leased to the federal government Department of Defence in 1926. In 1930 it was handed over to the federal government's Civil Aviation Control. Between 1926 and the 1990s there were several upgrades and extensions to the airport terminal and runways.
In 1998 the airport was privatized on a 99-year lease to a company called Capital Airport Group whose front man was a local "rags to riches" Canberra businessman Terry Snow who died in August 2024. The privatization of the Canberra Airport was one of many privatized in the same decade under the Howard Government's Airport Act 1996 which enabled 49% ownership of any airport privatized under the Act.
The Hawke- Keating governments facilitated the privatization of airports in 1988 when they set up a federal government business enterprise, Australian Pacific Airports Corporation (APAL).
Government business enterprises in aviation, like in other industries, remove ownership and direct control by the relevant government departments and their Ministers.
In the case of the Canberra Airport, the privatized owner, who appeared to be the local businessman Terry Snow is actually the Capital Airport Group whose overseas interests are Chinese aviation corporate interests based in Beijing, China!
The outgoing and incoming security services contractors at the Canberra Airport are also both overseas owned corporations.
Certis Group is a Singapore based security company.
MSS is wholly owned by Indian based SIS Limited, one of the Asia-Pacific's largest security personnel contractors.
Guards Taking Action
Canberra Airport security guards are taking various actions to fight for their jobs with a focus on federal politicians returning from holidays in the first week of February.
This situation of a group of workers in Australia employed by contractors in insecure jobs owned by multinational corporations whose client in turn is a government privatized entity is all too familiar.
The Canberra Airport guards will fight to defend their jobs, pay and conditions and are already receiving strong support in Canberra and beyond.
In a federal election year, their struggle is a microcosm of the general struggle for Australian independence and socialism. They hear the politicians talk about the "national interest". In the case of airports and airport security, is it in the "national interest" to have airports and airport security owned and operated by multinational corporations whose reason for existence is maximize profits?
To support Canberra Airport security guards, go to www.uwu.org.au/noplceformss
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