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16 April 2009
A lock out and a strike are very different. A strike is when workers temporarily stop work. A lock out is when the company refuses to allow union members to work until they have either left the union or accepted the company’s terms of employment. In this case it was a 20 cent pay rise now and 15 cents in six months. Lock outs are an attempt to starve workers back to work and are a very nasty tactic to use against workers who receive below the poverty line wages.
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12 April 2009
Union members and organisers held a dawn Prayer Meeting outside the Director of Synovate’s house today. Quotes from the Bible such as, “What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul,” were read out over megaphones in the quiet Epsom street. Around 30 South Auckland call centre workers remain locked out by their British owners for refusing to accept a wage increase that will not even cover the cost of inflation. New Zealand workers are paid the legal minimum wage of NZ$12.50, less than half of the AUS$22 that workers get in Australia.
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10 April 2009
Over 30 market research call centre workers in Auckland, who are members of the Unite Union have been illegally locked out today by their employer, British multi-national corporation, Synovate. The corporation’s New Zealand managers were instructed by their British senior managers to lock-out the New Zealand workforce after they turned down a pay offer of a measly 20 cents an hour.
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2 April 2009
Unite union members have this week ratified an agreement with Burger King which breaks new ground for fast-food workers. It is the first agreement in the industry which has redundancy payments for workers in the case of a store closure. It also represents the absolute end of youth rates in all Unite agreements with fast-food companies and cinemas where young workers predominate.
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28 March 2009
The Brisbane Broncos won’t be experiencing full kiwi hospitality this weekend. The team is staying at Auckland’s plush Crowne Plaza hotel, where room attendants and other staff have gone on strike.
Around twenty members of Unite union are on strike; calling for a pay rise and better working conditions. “We are underpaid and overworked” says Unite delegate Tapa Jago. “We are fed up with the low pay and heavy workloads”.
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28 March 2009
An agreement has been reached today between Unite Union and OCIS over the terms of a Collective Agreement for staff. The settlement also involves the withdrawal of the lockout notice, payment for members who lost shifts yesterday and today, withdrawal of the legal action against the union for alleged bad faith bargaining and a pay rise that will deliver a 50c an hour increase in the base rate and the opportunity to earn up to another $1 an hour depending on achievement of some quality and performance standards.
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23 March 2009
59 Unite Union members at Oceania Customer Interaction Service (OCIS), a North Shore call centre have been indefinitely locked out by their employer. Union members have been taking action for three weeks to put pressure on the multi-national corporation to raise wages to a living wage of $15 an hour. “The employees are paid $12.50, which next week will be minimum wage. They have been told they must accept a contract at this rate or remain locked out. We are not going to be intimidated by this corporation, which is using a very vicious tactic to intimidate our mostly teenage membership,” said Unite Union National Director Mike Treen.
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6 March 2009
A dozen call centre workers on the North Shore walked off the job last night at the research company Oceania Customer Interaction Services (OCIS). Around a dozen mostly teenaged workers took part in the strike action, downing headphones and walking out of telephone briefings with the companies clients signalling dissatisfaction at their pay rate of $12.50.
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25 Feb 2009
Over twenty professional market researchers will begin a hunger strike at 4pm today that their union says will last for at least twenty-four hours. Market researchers from the residential team at the east Auckland call centre of the global market research firm Synovate, which has an annual turnover of $720 million have taken the action to protest poverty wages, often as low as $12.50, inadequate breaks and no job security.
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10 Feb 2009
Unite Union National Secretary Matt McCarten today submitted a request to the Clerk of the House for the right to petition for a referendum on raising the minimum wage to two-thirds of the average wage. Unite Union which represents many minimum wage workers says the 50-cent an hour increase, while welcome, is barely enough to cover the cost of living increase. “In real terms it is a cut for our members as the money they spend most of their incomes on are things like food, power, transport and housing which have risen much faster than the overall CPI”, said Mike Treen Unite National Director.
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18 January 2009
From March '09 workers in small businesses will be able to be sacked for any reason, or no reason at all, in their first 90 days of employment. The RAT PATROL has been launched by unions and community groups to make sure no worker get unfairly dismissed under the new law. Join the RAT Patrol tour of Auckland Malls and Markets on Saturday, February 28, 12 noon, Aotea Square, CBD.
Register as a RAT PATROL member here to join the emergency solidarity pickets against unfair sackings.
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18 January 2009
Union members at McDonald’s have accepted a proposed new collective agreement that will come into effect from March2009 until March 2011. Union members voted narrowly to accept the agreement after three months of strikes from Whangarei to Wellington that saw 100 strikers from Auckland and Hamilton march on the national conference of franchisees at the Hyatt Hotel in November demanding fair pay and secure hours.
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16 January 2009
Thirty-eight Whangarei fast food workers at McDonald’s, KFC and Burger King have signed an open letter to their Member of Parliament Phil Heatley urging him and his government to raise the minimum wage by $1 a hour.
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13 December 2008Unite Union leader Matt McCarten today released emails from police informant Rob Gilchrist to the police spy unit detailing activities being organised by the union as part of their push to abolish youth pay rates and increase the minimum wage.
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1 December
The Unite Union has instructed its lawyers to file a case against the Digipoll research company in the Employment Relations Authority citing the continued victimisation of union members at its Hamilton call centre. "Digipoll has attempted to bully and victimise thirty union members out of the union by segregating them into another building away from where non-union employees are working", said Unite Union National Director Mike Treen.
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5 November
Unite Union members from twenty restaurants in Auckland and
Hamilton took strike action and converged on the quarterly national conference of McDonald's bosses at an Auckland hotel.
Click here for the TV3 news live cross to the protest.
Click here for TV3's 6pm report.
Click here for NZPA article.
Click here for McJobs - Mcdonald's workers tales of bullying and mistreatment.
Click here for a slideshow of images from the pickets
Click here for TV3 news video of the Otara picket.
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5 November
Unite Union members at around twenty restaurants in Auckland and Hamilton will take strike action and converge on the quarterly national conference of McDonald's bosses at an Auckland hotel. Union members will rally outside Queen Street McDonald's at 12 noon
before marching on the Hyatt Hotel to demand living wages and secure hours.
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14 October
After 3 months of industrial action SkyCity members should be meeting next week to consider and vote on an improved offer from their employer. The exact details of some aspects have yet to be finalised but assumimg everything is satisfactory there will be meetings next week of union members to discuss and recommend a vote on a new Collective Employment Agreement (CEA) settlement.
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