Air NZ cabin crew to start four day industrial action

5 May, 2009

Flight attendants employed by Air New Zealand subsidiary Zeal 320 Ltd will begin four days of industrial action on Thursday as part of their campaign for fair pay.

The action will involve 240 flight attendants and will affect Trans-Tasman and Pacific flights serviced by Air New Zealand's Airbus A320 fleet.

The cabin crew gave notice of strike action effective this Thursday then Air New Zealand responded by issuing a lockout notice for the term of the strike action and has called for strike-breakers to undermine the industrial action.

EPMU national secretary Andrew Little says the dispute is about addressing the unfairness that sees Zeal employees earning tens of thousands of dollars a year less than crew employed directly by the airline doing exactly the same job.

"The decision to strike was not taken lightly by our members but they have been negotiating for seven months and the company is still offering them terms and conditions that are tens of thousands of dollars less than crew employed directly by Air New Zealand.

"The only people who are employed by Zeal 320 are these flight attendants because the company exists solely to exclude them from the terms and conditions other crew enjoy. Even their managers are directly employed by Air New Zealand.

"It's an unethical use of corporate legal structures to deprive these workers of decent conditions and the flight crew are quite rightly taking this action in an attempt to level the playing field.

"This is a matter of basic fairness.

"Air NZ says the recession justifies continuing the grossly unfair arrangements they put in place during the height of the economic boom, but this is so unfair it needs to be fixed now.

"The airline is still profitable, even its profits this year will be below the very good profits they've earned in the past. Fixing this injustice won't break the airline."

On Friday the EPMU issued Air New Zealand with a revised offer, which the company is currently considering. If Air New Zealand rejects the offer the strike action on Thursday will continue as planned.

Members and workplaces keen to support the cabin crew in this dispute can call the Union Support Centre on 0800 186 466 to find out how.