Skateboard Competition Goes Ahead Despite Setback

Unite Union / SuperSizeMyPay.Com
Wednesday, 30 November

A skateboarding competition created in order to raise public awareness of the SuperSizeMyPay.Com campaign has been rescheduled after its original date, at the Grey Lynn Festival last Saturday, was cancelled.

Bad weather prevented the Earls of Grey competition kicking off last week, but it has not stopped organiser Levi Hawken rescheduling the event for this Saturday 3rd December at the Grey Lynn Park.

The SuperSizeMyPay.Com campaign is aiming to raise the minimum wage to $12 an hour, abolish youth rates, and ensure secure working hours.

As a symbol of support, the top prize on offer will be $12, a nod to the aim of the campaign.

The competition will also be good timing, as workers at the KFC in Balmoral will be going on strike at 2pm that day to highlight the need for abolishing youth rates.

Young staff at the multinational fast-food chain earn as little as $7.13 an hour.

SuperSizeMyPay.Com campaign coordinator Simon Oosterman said it was important the event went ahead after all the hard work that had gone into organising the competition.

“This is a very important event. It targets younger people, who are some of the most vulnerable in low-paid jobs, and we need to raise the awareness among this community that they can demand a decent living wage. The Earls of Grey competition is just another way we are trying to highlight this,” he said.

Mr Hawken agrees, and is proud to be organising an event that encourages community awareness over an important issue.

“Hopefully it will promote the cause to different people, to those who don’t know about the campaign, and it might help them realise that they could be getting a better deal.”

The Earls of Grey competition will take place at 4pm in the skate bowl at the Grey Lynn Park, and local skate sponsors will also be providing t-shirts and skateboards as prizes.

ENDS

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