Migrant Workers Strike For A Fair Slice Of The Profit
Press Release: SuperSizeMyPay.Com and Unite Union
Friday, December 16 2005
Migrant workers will be serving up slices from a giant pizza tomorrow as part of the next SuperSizeMyPay.Com strike
action at the Royal Oak Pizza Hut restaurant, 12 noon at 711 Mt Albert Rd, Auckland, Saturday 16th of December.
SuperSizeMyPay.Com campaign co-ordinator Simon Oosterman said the fast-food workers were striking to raise public awareness of the
disproportionate number of migrant workers on low pay and minimum wage in New Zealand, particularly in Auckland where
two thirds of migrants live and study and where the costs of living are highest.
“70% of the striking Pizza Hut store’s workers are migrants or international students. They are often told they do not
have enough ‘Kiwi’ experience to seek better paid work elsewhere and have no choice but to work in low-paid and
low-skill jobs. Up to one hundred percent of workers in many Pizza Hut stores are either new migrants or international
students from India, China and the Pacific Islands amongst others.”
Unite union delegates held a meeting last night to decide whether they would accept the new collective agreement which
was offered by Restaurant Brands following two strikes by their Starbucks and KFC stores.
Royal Oak Pizza Hut delegate Nistha Singh, 17, said that while the company’s new offer recognises the three
SuperSizeMyPay.Com claims and includes steps towards job security, the lack of a significant shift in wages and only a
3-5 year commitment to eradicating youth pay discrimination meant that delegates voted unanimously to take further
industrial action.
“Restaurant Brands have super-sized the number of their stores, opening the 100th Pizza Hut store earlier this year,
they have recently spent millions of dollars refurbishing stores and they have just announced sales of $71.6 million
over the last three months that we have been negotiating. Migrant workers and other low paid Pizza Hut workers think
that a super-sizing of our slice of the profits if far overdue, accepting anything below $12 would be accepting poverty
wages,” said Ms Singh.
“Pizza hut drivers, who are self-contractors, only earn $4.60 per delivery when the company charges $5.50 to customers
and provides no financial assistance for petrol or maintenance of the worker’s own car which they use.”
“Unite union has been the first collective voice for many migrants in the fast food industry, which is hard to have as
an individual when English is your second language,” she said.
Mr Oosterman said that the fast-food industry plays a significant role in maintaining and widening ethnic pay disparity
in New Zealand.
“Migrant workers have come from poor countries to New Zealand to find a better quality of life, but find a high cost of
basic living unaffordable on poorly paid jobs. Fast food-companies exploit vulnerable workers who have no choice but to
earn low wages, which depreciates the wages of all New Zealanders and keeps labour costs low and profits high for these
companies,” said Simon Oosterman.
“Raising the minimum wage to $12 an hour now, in collective agreements and via government legislation, would play an
important role in bridging the ethnic pay gap, as well as between rich and poor, men and women, Pakeha and Maori, youth,
and the disabled,” he concluded.
The latest offer from the brand owner was made in a meeting between Unite representatives and Restaurant Brands
management last Sunday.
ENDS