Two dozen workers at Auckland Airport’s foodcourt staged a lightening strike on Saturday 7 June, in protest at medieval working conditions. The strikers marched through the foodcourt calling for their rights and were applauded by the public.
Employers and security tried unsuccessfully to silence the upbeat strikers.
The company is a joint venture between HMSC, a mega-corporation with businesses around the world, and Auckland International Airport.
Mike Treen of Unite Union said the workers had the worst employment contract the union had come across.
The workers have a start time but no finish time. They may work for one hour or for 10 hours at the whim of the company. Unite has succeeded in getting breaks established for staff, who earlier were working up to 7 hours with no breaks. Most are on the minimum wage or slightly above and have no security of hours. Some have worked 38 to 40 hours a week for several years but are denied permanent positions. The strikers are calling for a pay increase, security of hours for long serving staff and improved breaks.
Cheers for writing this. Have turned it into a feature article on http://www.indymedia.org.nz Also have made a feature on the Philippines that might be of interest to readers of The Spark.
Cheers for that Cameron. It’d be good if we could put more articles from the Spark on the front page of Indymedia – the anarchists have a bit of a monopoly! 😛
I visit your site every once in a while and I must mention that I like your template!