Airport immigration and Border Force staff on rolling strike - additional 24-hour strike at major airports planned for Easter Thursday

Australian airport staff will go on strike in major cities around the country in time for the Easter Holidays as part of a larger series of actions organised by the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU).

Rolling strike action on Tuesday affected eligible immigration, quarantine and Border Force officers of Cairns, Townsville, Perth, Darwin and Adelaide airports, serving as a precursor to 24-hour strikes scheduled for Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane international airports on Easter Thursday.

On Monday, 24-hour strikes occurred at Medicare, Centrelink, the Australian Tax Office, the Bureau of Meteorology, the Bureau of Statics, the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, GeoScience Australia, Intellectual Property Australia, Australian Synchrotron and the departments of Defence, Education, Human Services, Public Services and Environment, as well as the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.

“These are working mums and dads who’ve suffered a two year long onslaught from this government,” said CPSU National Secretary Nadine Flood in a message to the government.

“They’re dealing with massive job losses, pressure on the services they deliver and an attack on their rights and conditions.”

The strikes are against what the CPSU describes as the “antagonistic approach” of the government towards industrial relations.

It claims that the government uses managers and casual workers to break strikes throughout bargaining processes, while union members have been stood down without pay for organising partial stop-work actions.

The union also singled out current and former ministers for Employment, Michaelia Cash and Eric Abetz, respectively, as well as conservative senator Cory Bernardi, for having “launched regular public attacks on public workers and their union”.

Rather than achieving pay rises, the union hopes to defend workers’ consultation rights with the government and keep workers’ rights bound by agreements rather than policy, as well as maintaining family-friendly working provisions and real wages.

However, Employment Minister Michaelia Cash told the ABC that the strikes will have a huge impact on travellers during the Easter long weekend, a significant public holiday.

“It is also greatly concerning that the CPSU's conduct will mean that some of the most vulnerable in society may [have] their services impacted over Easter,” she said.

Cash called for the union to engage in negotiation with the Department of Human Services instead of stopping work.

According to the CPSU, it has been campaigning for two years and on March 2, a three-week warning was given for the strikes as a last resort.

Although the government was able to bargain with the employees of some agencies in the past three months, 85 percent of public servants still refuse to sign up to new agreements according to the union, with 130,000 staff in total without new agreements.

The Monday strikes saw Centrelink and Medicare users urged to avoid non-essential queries, while Department of Human Services general manager Hank Jongen recommended clients delay their contact or visit.

Department of Immigration and Border Protection assistant commissioner Clive Murray meanwhile encouraged passengers to arrive early at all domestic and international airports for the anticipated strikes on Easter Tuesday.