23 May 2012

EPMU Says Government and Employers Need To Take Notice of the Living Wage Campaign

The government and employers need to take notice of the significant support behind the Living Wage campaign – being launched in Auckland today, according to the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union.

Initiated by the Service and Food Workers’ Union Nga Ringa Tota, the campaign is a broad-based union and community campaign aimed at ending poverty wages and growing inequality.

“We have too many hard working New Zealanders that are not earning enough to support themselves and their families,” says Ged O’Connell, EPMU assistant national secretary. “Low wages condemn people to the poverty trap with all its negative consequences.”

Mr O’Connell says the EPMU will be seeking membership support and endorsement for the Living Wage campaign when it holds a series of nationwide meetings of manufacturing workers over coming weeks. He expects the campaign’s themes and aims will find their way into discussions at bargaining tables across the country.

“We know we have a responsibility to support every effort to raise the wages of working New Zealanders and ensure that we’re doing our bit to help stamp out poverty. We will be making our views known to employers that the Living Wage campaign embodies a broad community message that low wages are unfair, unjust and socially destructive,” says Mr O’Connell.

ENDS

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