Christchurch engineers vote yes

February 23, 2006

Christchurch engineers vote yes

Members of the Aviation and Marine Engineers’ Association at Air New Zealand’s Christchurch base have today voted in favour of a new collective agreement that will change their working conditions and secure the future of aviation engineering in New Zealand.

Association national secretary George Ryde said that 92 per cent of the 220 AMEA members in Christchurch turned out to vote today, and 71 per cent of them voted in favour of the agreement. Last week, the site rejected the deal.

Mr Ryde said that the workers had been in an extremely difficult position since October when Air New Zealand announced its intention to contract much of its heavy engineering work overseas.

“This is a bunch of people that any employer would be proud to have,” he said.

“They have behaved with absolute dignity and professionalism while facing some extremely difficult choices, and at the same time have maintained productivity and kept Air New Zealand’s planes flying safely, despite the difficulties they were dealing with.”

ENDS

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