Call centre workers strike to 'make a point to all those out there struggling with the same thing’

Call centre staff who are members of Unite Union took strike action yesterday morning against their employer Salmat (also known as
Salesforce). Approximately 40 members took part in the action as part of the effort to achieve what will be their first pay rise in three
years. The worksite is located at the corporate complex on 666 Great South Road in Penrose, Auckland. With its objective of rebuilding amongst the vast unorganised sections of the working class, Unite has been present on the site for over two years.
Salmat is an outsource operation that holds contracts with major companies, one being Vodafone, for which Salmat has a contract for
handling both customer and business calls. In terms of the modern workplace it’s a success to have a strong union membership in an outsource operation.
Speaking from the picket line, Ross Asiata, one of Unite’s delegates at the workplace stated to media “Everything else around us increases, GST etc, but our pay rise (read ‘pay rate’) stays the same. As you can see behind me that’s the staff that are in the same boat as me, trying to make a point to management and to all those others that are out there struggling with the same thing”.