Musicians and the Community Come Together to Support Low Paid Workers

NZ Idol Rosita Vai and well known New Zealand musician Imon Star will join Unite union workers tomorrow to support the SuperSizeMyPay.com campaign at a public rally in the Town Hall at 2pm.

Rhombus lead MC Imon Star will host the free event and will perform with his new band Olmecha Supreme. Rosita Vai has also volunteered to sing for the low paid.

Sue Bradford MP will ask the meeting to endorse her bill to end youth rates. Maori Party co-leader Pita Sharples will also be there to support the workers. This event doubles as the first mass meeting of fast food workers in New Zealand since the 1980s and will also feature top New Zealand comedians, community speakers and guest bands.

Workers at McDonald’s Queen St held a strike yesterday to make sure they could come to the meeting. SuperSizeMyPay.com campaign coordinator, Simon Oosterman, said their employer had rostered them off Sunday shifts to avoid paying them, but after the strike they backed off and guaranteed the workers would be paid to go.

Poto Suifili, a trainee manager at the store said it was time for things to change for all fast food workers. She said she was thrilled her store felt strong enough to strike and she would take all of her workmates and her family to the rally on Sunday.

“It’s about time that there were some people from Queen St McDonald’s taking action and raising the bar for other stores,” she said.

Mr Oosterman said the campaign has been a series of short actions to publicise the worker’s campaign to their customers but has now reached a critical point. Organisers are expecting up to 1000 people at the rally.

“The three big fast food employers have now agreed to sit down and negotiate their employee’s claims,” he said.

The SupersizeMyPay.com campaign is based on three central claims: $12 an hour, end youth rates and more secure hours.

ENDS

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