Locked Out
I went to a Coutdown supermarket on the weekend. They'd run out of lots of vital products. The only thing they seemed to have in ample suppy was budget toilet paper. They must have stocked up on it, because it was everywhere. The managers seemed to have decided that shelves look less empty if they have toilet paper on them. If they had the one brand of jam and had run out of the other, they'd just put toilet paper in their instead.
The workers whose job it is to distribute goods within the Progressive Supermarket chain, have been locked out, and unable to do that job, for a week now. Mediation Friday and Saturday failed to reach a solution, and so it's going to be a long hard fight. The NDU is doing a fantastic job, but they can't win it by themselves, they need support and soliarity.
1. Go to the picket line in Auckland, Palmerston North and Christchurch.
2. The locked out workers have no source of income - donations to the campaign are vital - 02-0200-0217968-00 with the reference “Supply Chain”
3. You can send a message to Progressive management really easily over at LabourStart.
Why should they get paid the same at different sites when the cost of living is different in different towns, and each town has a seperate labour market?
ReplyDeleteThe price of their labour will depend on local supply and demand, and the price will have varying values to them depending what the cost of living is in their town.
If they go uniform pay, it'd be about 12 months before the Aucklanders were asking for special allowances. Why should Progressive employees in PN get extra just because Progressive needs to pay more in Auckland to get the people it needs.
More union laziness. They'd rather have one agreement to deal with than come to 3 agreements that are fair for that location, even if it's unfair to the employer. Progressive isn't trying to screw the employees by havign three rates... they're just trying to avoid paying Auckland wages in PN!
F**6*(&^*&%^ (oops, brain embolism)
Camryn read the post after this post, read it very slowly.
ReplyDeleteCurrently workers in Auckland are being paid $1 or so less an hour than workers in Palmerston North, not more.
ah I love it when people don't read.
ReplyDeletetoilet paper on the jam shelves.
loving it!!!!
ps: camryn, you can still have different pay rates for different locations on a single collective.
ReplyDeleteI know because I've signed a collective that said exactly that once.