Expo Hostesses Ready To Stop

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32350, 16 July 1970, Page 1

Expo Hostesses Ready To Stop

IN Z P.A. Staff Correspondent) OSAKA (Japan), July 15. New Zealand pavilion officials at Expo 70 avoided a staff mutiny when nearly 50 girl hostesses got the new summer uniforms they had pressed for to replace their original all-wool tunics. The girls threatened to stop work unless their woollen two-piece outfits, which had shrunk—to indecent lengths, said one—and were 100 hot for the oppressive Osaka summer, were replaced. They drew up a petition to present to the Commis-sioner-General. Mr J. L. Fenaughty, but he had

already laid plans for new light-weight uniforms. "We were aware of the problems and had already decided that the girls’ outfits would have to be changed,” he said. Apart from the heat, a combination of bad drycleaning and spreading hips and waistlines led to the change. The woollen uniforms, similar to those worn by Air New Zealand hostesses, were originally intended to last the six months of Expo 70. The new uniform, acclaimed as “great” by all the girls, is a short-sleeved synthetic-cotton mix dress, in the same teal blue, and worn with a flowing white eotton scarf.