22 September 2006
New Zealand Public Thanked For Their Support Over Last Four Weeks
CTU president Ross Wilson today thanked the many thousands of New Zealanders who supported the workers locked out by
Progressive Enterprises over the past four weeks.
"The company's aggressive strategy of locking out the workers until they submitted failed because of the huge level of
public support that these workers received."
"The CTU office was receiving unsolicited donations daily, and members of the public needed no convincing about what was
at stake when they opened up their wallets at street collections in many areas of New Zealand."
"This morning we were contacted by a church asking how they could continue to support the workers, with a collection
planned for this Sunday."
"Worksite collections, donations from New Zealand and overseas unions, raffles, church and street collections and other
fundraising collected around $250,000 for the workers. This enabled them to stay strong with their just claim for wage
parity across the four distribution centres."
"I want to thank the New Zealand public for their moral and financial support for these families over the past month,"
Ross Wilson said.
ENDS