Byron skydivers join third national strike

Some of the instructors of Skydive Byron Bay have again been on strike over the weekend as part of a national union movement calling for a pay increase.

The Australian Workers’ Union says their skydive instructing members haven’t had a pay rise since 2022.

AWU National Organiser Jonathan Cook said last week members had taken days of strike in December and again earlier this month but that further strike action had ‘become inevitable’.

Mr Cook said members would be ‘on the grass’ for another four days to send the message they ‘want a deal that offers secure jobs, fair wage increases and safe workplaces’.

The union has accused Experience Co, said to be Australia’s biggest skydiving operator, of moving to replace local workforce with workers from overseas.

The company owns Skydive Australia jump sites across the country, including in Byron Bay, and has reportedly proposed paying visa workers less than full time employees.

Company accused of terminating training program

‘During a cost-of-living crisis our members are saying “let’s make a deal”’, Mr Cook said, ‘but instead the company is suggesting that they should accept terms that would see a foreign labourer on a visa earning less for doing the same job’.

The union said the company had also applied to the government for access to 37 overseas workers to fill the shoes of local tandem skydiving instructors after terminating a local training program.

AWU National Secretary Paul Farrow said the company’s actions were reprehensible.

‘There’s no skills shortage here,’ Mr Farrow said, ‘just a desperate bid by an employer that is seemingly happy to cut off training and development for its own employees’.

Unionised tandem skydiving instructors were to be on strike until tonight, Monday 23 February, having stopped work on Friday morning.