12 April 2006
Easter Sunday for communion and companionship not commerce
The union for retail workers is calling on shop owners to keep their doors closed on Easter Sunday and respect the law
of the country and values of family and community.
National Distribution Union National Secretary Laila Harré fully expects some renegade traders "to see themselves as
being above the law, as they do every year."
However she says that "the vast majority of shop owners are expected to respect both the law of the land and their own
and their staff's desire to dedicate Easter Sunday to communion and companionship, and not to commerce."
As an Alliance MP Laila Harré was involved in "successful attempts every year to stop the last three and half
commerce-free days being eroded everywhere by the lobbying of a very few very small holiday areas."
She says that the latest private members' bill drafted by Rotorua MP Steve Chadwick which would give local councils the
ability to open shops up on Easter Sunday will be "yet another distraction for shop workers and communities who will
have to put their meagre resources up against the huge commercial power of the mall owners in the battle to preserve
family life."
ENDS