Qantas Irish chief threatened over pay dispute

AUSTRALIA’S Qantas Airways industrial fight with unions has turned nasty, with racist threatening letters sent to the airline’s Irish chief and other management staff, and cars and homes of Qantas staff damaged after they refused to strike.

One letter sent to the Qantas chief, Tallaght man Alan Joyce, used racist language and said: “The unions will fight you. Qantas is our airline, started and staffed by Australians, not foreign filth like you . . . ”

Mr Joyce said yesterday that police were investigating the threats and he had issued a memo to 35,000 Qantas staff alerting them to the threats and attacks.