Media release
25 March 2009

Air New Zealand Customers Express Disappointment in Strike Notice

Air New Zealand customers are in disbelief that ZEAL cabin crew claiming a 26 percent pay increase are endeavouring to hold their Easter holiday plans to ransom.

Air New Zealand Group General Manager Short Haul Airlines Bruce Parton says Air New Zealand staff have been fielding queries from customers frustrated by the proposed strike action by the cabin crew, who had they accepted the company offer, would earn between $40,000 and $60,000 annually for working a 30-hour week to operate the A320 fleet flying Tasman and Pacific Island services.

“Naturally, we share the disappointment of those travellers who are looking forward to reuniting with loved ones and friends over the Easter break,” says Mr Parton.

“We really struggle to see why the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union would want to hold the travel plans of mums, dads, children, grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends to ransom with such a selfish action.

“Air New Zealand has gone above and beyond over the past six months to reach a realistic settlement with the ZEAL crew, who are represented by Andrew Little’s EPMU. Our offer of a 4.5% pay increase for 15 months was extremely generous when set against the backdrops of a global economic meltdown, mass redundancies and a bloodbath on the Tasman due to foreign airlines dumping capacity.”

Mr Parton says Air New Zealand is particularly at a loss to understand the EPMU’s tactics at a time when it has been encouraging delegates to settle offers at much lower levels in other companies and has been extremely public in its view that both employers and employees needed to work together constructively.

“It was the EPMU’s Andrew Little who said just a few weeks ago on March 6 that he wanted to ‘make sure the burden of the recession is shared fairly’. He and his union have a strange sense of fairness. A 26% wage claim that would make the Tasman airline even more unprofitable and threaten jobs is more than a few steps from being fair.

“It also goes in the face of another statement Mr Little made on March 6 that ‘We’ve got to look after our members, keep people in jobs…’.”

Meantime, Mr Parton says the EPMU should stop its mischievous behaviour of trying to mislead the public over supposed disparities between the level of income for ZEAL cabin crew and long haul cabin crew.

“The reality is that long haul cabin crew will always receive more money because of their longer tours of duty and the high cost of meals and allowances when they overnight (sometimes for several days) in countries like the United States and Japan where the New Zealand dollar is so weak.”

ENDS

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