Last Ditch Efforts Through Mediation

11 May 2005

Last Ditch Efforts Through Mediation To Avoid Imminent Wide Spread Strike Action.

“Academic staff have voted overwhelmingly in favour of strike action across six North Island Polytechnics and Institutes of Technology in order to receive fair salary offers” Lloyd Woods the national president of ASTE Te Hau Takitini o Aotearoa said today in Wellington. “Despite having talked at length with our employer representatives about the need for a fair and reasonable salary offer one has not been forthcoming and this has led to high levels of dissatisfaction” he added.

Woods went on to say “talks yesterday in Auckland had given some hope that some employer representatives would go back to their institutions with a view of getting more money on the table and ASTE had decided in good faith to give them that opportunity to do so and then to attempt resolution through mediation next week. If the offer does not improve there is certain to be strike action that will close the six institutions involved”.

The six institutions are Wintec (Hamilton), Western Institute of Technology in Taranaki, Unitec, Northland Polytechnic, Whitireia Community Polytechnic and the Bay of Plenty Polytechnic.

Woods noted that it was time that the staff were rewarded for their endeavours while getting a salary increase that also reflected increases in the wider community. “We must be able attract the best nurses, teachers, trades people, and other people to the tertiary institutions. If our salaries fall behind we will not only lose existing staff back to industry but will continue to have recruitment issues. We are asking for no more than a fair deal and less than some workers elsewhere have already attained”

ENDS

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