Air NZ flight attendants strike over poverty wage

March 24, 2009
Media Release

Air NZ flight attendants strike over poverty wages

Flight attendants employed by Air New Zealand subsidiary Zeal 320 Ltd will begin industrial action on Saturday over poverty wages that see them earning up to $30,000 a year less than their colleagues employed directly by Air New Zealand.

The industrial action will involve 250 flight attendants belonging to the EPMU and will affect all domestic, Trans-Tasman and Pacific flights carried out by Air New Zealand’s Airbus A320 fleet.

EPMU national aviation organiser Strachan Crang says after six months of negotiating union members have been left with no option but industrial action.

“Our members at Zeal work the same jobs as Air New Zealand-employed cabin crew in the same uniform and to the same destinations onboard Air New Zealand planes. Nobody would know they were not Air New Zealand crew.

“But they are paid tens of thousands of dollars a year less than crew who work directly for Air New Zealand and over the last six months the company has made it clear they are not going to change that situation.

“Our members simply cannot afford to live on the wages the company has offered. More than a third of them are working second jobs, many of them are living off debt, and many of them cannot even afford to buy food when they are on duty overseas.

“That’s why, under instruction from our members, we have taken the last option available to us and issued Air New Zealand with a strike notice.”

The industrial action will proceed as follows:

From Saturday March 28 workers will not be following uniform policy and will be refusing to do some paperwork.

From Wednesday April 1 workers will be refusing standby. This means the company will have difficulty filling crew requirements at short notice. It should be noted that under Civil Aviation law there are minimum crew requirements that must be fulfilled before a plane is allowed to take off.

From Wednesday April 8 workers will be taking full strike action.

The EPMU’s fact sheet on the Air New Zealand Zeal dispute is available at:
http://www.epmu.org.nz/assets/Aviation/Zeal-320-Ltd-FAQ.pdf

ENDS

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