Fyfe must front - EPMU

April 29, 2009
Media Release

Fyfe must front - EPMU

The Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union does not accept that Air New Zealand CEO Rob Fyfe cannot find the time to front up to Zeal staff to defend the company’s position on their terms and conditions.

The call follows Fyfe’s claim he is too busy dealing with the swine flu preparations to spend any time at the bargaining table despite the company’s lockout action starting on Thursday May 7th.

EPMU national secretary Andrew Little says the CEO of any major corporation should be able to deal with more than one important issue at once.

“The measure of any CEO or leader is their ability to manage multiple issues at once, it’s why they are in the job and it’s why they earn the big dollars.

“Our members have been bargaining for seven months without hearing a single good reason why they should accept second class wages and conditions. They deserve to hear an explanation from the person who is calling the shots.

“Many of our members at Zeal know exactly what it is to be busy as they have to work two or three jobs to get by and they are finding it very hard to believe that Mr Fyfe cannot take an hour or two out of his schedule to tell them why they don’t deserve a fair pay rise.”

Following notification of strike action Air New Zealand informed the union it will lock out 240 EPMU members at Zeal for four days from Thursday May 7th.

Negotiations will continue tomorrow afternoon.

ENDS