No responsible company would let a small number of unions dictate how the business is run.

Yet that is exactly what three unions claiming to represent the interests of Qantas employees want to do.

Between them the Transport Workers Union, the Australian Licenced Engineers Union and the Australian and International Pilots Union, which represent less than 20 percent of the Qantas workforce, have been taking destructive industrial action for months now. This has forced Qantas to cancel over 600 flights and ground seven aircraft. It has affected 70,000 passengers, often at peak times, created uncertainty for businesses and damaged the tourism industry.

The unions are happy for the travelling public to be collateral damage. Union leaders have boasted about another 12 months of industrial action.

They say this is all about "job security". Many other Qantas employees would find that hard to take, because it is their jobs that would be put at risk were this situation to continue indefinitely.

What the unions are actually trying to do is secure a veto on change. They demand the retention of outdated work practices that do not reflect the realities of modern aviation. They want Jetstar pilots to be paid at the same rates as Qantas pilots, a move that would drive up ticket prices for leisure travellers. These are major, structural claims that we cannot accept.

Qantas is a generous employer, paying rates at the top of the aviation industry. We are willing to negotiate reasonable pay increases. TWU members employed by Qantas are already paid at rates 12 percent higher than those at Virgin and this week a deal offering further increases was rejected by the union. Over the past 15 months we have reached good agreements, in fact or in principle, with unions representing 10,000 Qantas employees.

So pay is not the issue. The issue is the desire of these three unions to exert control over business direction - to prevent Qantas changing as the global economy changes.

In August I set out a new five-year international plan for the Qantas Group. The premise was quite simple. We have a strong portfolio of domestic, frequent flyer and freight business, while Jetstar continues to grow strongly. This porftolio delivered underlying profit of AU$552 million in Nov. 2010. Qantas International, however, made a loss of AU$216 million on invested capital of AU$5 billion.

We need to fix this part of the business and we are doing so by targeting global gateway cities, building stronger alliances, removing capital from underperforming areas and establishing new airlines in growth markets.

No internationally-focused Australian business can afford to ignore the growth of Asia and the new carrier we are launching in the region will put us at the heart of the world's most exciting market. It will bring the benefits back to Australia in the shape of increased tourism, trade and investment. The alternative is an inward-looking Qantas that becomes a marginal player in global aviation.

The unions would have you believe that Qantas is "offshoring" or "betraying" its Australian roots. This is particularly flawed in the case of the TWU. Its members -- baggage handlers and ground handlers -- are employed at airports around Australia and always will be. Meanwhile, the redundancies related to the international strategy are the result of aircraft retirements and network changes. Not one of these jobs is being "outsourced".

For weeks now AIPA, the ALAEA and the TWU have been portraying tomorrow's annual general meeting as a referendum on Qantas' management. If shareholders vote overwhelmingly in support of the company -- and we are confident they will -- then the unions should accept their verdict and step back from their unreasonable demands and constant attacks on Qantas.

Union officials do not and cannot decide how Qantas is run - that is the role of the Qantas board, Qantas management and Qantas shareholders. A resounding, democratic endorsement of Qantas' position would be a resounding rejection of these three isolated unions.

Alan Joyce is chief executive officer of Qantas