Vote today on strike action
Air New Zealand flight catering staff will meet today to vote bn whether to continue a strike which has cut all meals on international flights for the last six days. The secretary of the Canterbury Hotel Workers’ Union, Mr Martin Moodie, said the vote would depend on whether the airline was prepared to show , any goodwill in the meantime. - ' ■ -'
Suspension notices issued to workers in Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland yesterday were a step in the wrong direction and were provocative, he said. “I’m hopeful that there may be positive moves.”
Mr Moodie said the airline had escalated the dispute by suspending five Auckland staff who were working to rule on Sunday and it was Air New Zealand’s responsibility to take a lead in solving it. .The work to rule began when kitchen staff failed to gain parity with ground steward staff at wage talks last week. The union asserts that kitchen staff do basically the same job as stewards who get an extra allowance if they have a heavy duty vehicle licence.
Mr Moodie said the $2O being handed to passen-
gers on international flights to compensate for the lack of meals was costing more than $BO,OOO a week.
By comparison the cost of meeting the extra pay claimed by the 300 workers would amount to $78,000 a year, he said. The difference between the employers’ offer and the wage parity with ground stewards claimed by workers, was only $5 a week.. • ': Mr Moodie said referral of the dispute to the Arbitration Court was a procedural matter and not a conciliatory gesture. The Court will hear both parties at a hearing in Auckland on February 12. A spokesman for Air New Zealand’s public affairs department, Mr Vernon Mitchel], said the cost of the strike was difficult to estimate and he was not sure of the accuracy of the union’s figures. Suspension notices would be lifted only if the union pledged a return to normal duties and working to rule would not be acceptable, he said. The refusal to use dishwashers and. other equipment effectively stopped catering on international services
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Press, 31 January 1986, Page 1
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354Vote today on strike action Press, 31 January 1986, Page 1
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