Unite recently launched a campaign with cinema workers to lift pay rates and conditions for the hundreds of members in cinemas around the country.
Skycity Cinema workers have overwhelmingly rejected the company's latest offer, which consisted of a discount for cinema attendants on parlour icecreams and no pay rise. They are now participating in "popcorn strikes" - requesting customers not to buy popcorn or confectionery - as a way to ask for support for their claims.
The union wants to see the pay rate equal to the best cinema contract in the country that sees workers paid a start rate of $12.20, rising to $13.10 over two years.
Cinemas organiser Tom Buckley says this is a modest demand considering that in Australia cinema workers are paid between $A15 and $A20 an hour.
"In New Zealand they are on the minimum wage of $12 in almost all of the cinemas except Reading cinema in Courtenay Central in Wellington, which pays $12.20 as a start rate and increases the pay by 90 cents over two years. These workers are also able to achieve guaranteed full time work and there is a minimum of one shift guaranteed a week."
"The rest of the industry certainly has some catching up to do and we know it is achievable for the companies to pay fair wages and still run at a profit."
Australian casual cinema workers can negotiate their hours and permananent part time employees are guaranteed between 16 and 32 hours a week.
In contrast, NZ SkyCity cinemas keep all of their staff, up to the level of duty manager on permanent part time contracts under which they are unable to negotiate their shifts, or swap shifts with another worker without company approval and are offered no guaranteed hours at all.
"The company claims they are flexible around students during exam times and the like but I had one case where someone asked for a week off for exams and was refused because his manager couldn't understand why he needed a weeks leave for exams," Buckley says.
"The company," he adds, "often issues 'no application for leave' notices during busy periods and workers can't even apply for annual leave during this time. These periods are often around school holidays and Christmas - or exams."
Buckley says the inflexibility and unfair conditions in cinemas stem from a company attitude that people work in cinemas for pocket money and the work is not a 'real' job.
"It must be remembered that there are many people working in cinemas who support families and earn money to live on and they deserve fair pay and guaranteed work.
"The cinema companies in general complain about revenue going down in the last period but at the same time, in the last two years there have been a number of new cinemas built around Auckland and in Hamilton, with huge capital coming from these same companies who say they can't afford to pay their workers more.
"This is an unacceptable excuse they come up with in negotiations and now the workers are standing up for what they deserve," Buckley concludes.