Airline staff cut may mean strike

Press, 7 June 1983, Page 9

Airline staff cut may mean strike

Air New Zealand cabin attendants may take industrial action if a proposal to reduce staff on the Atlantic service goes ahead. The Airline Stewards and Hostesses’ Union will meet Air New Zealand tomorrow to discuss a proposal that the cabin staff on the Los Angeles - London flight be cut from 17 to 15. A spokesman for Air New Zealand, Mr V. J. Mitchell, said yesterday that the airline had received 14 days notice of industrial action from the union late last month.

Mr Mitchell said that the Los Angeles — London service was the only one in Air New Zealand with so many staff.

It was a relatively new service and the airline had “wanted to start it with a flourish.”

The president of the union, Mr Peter Best, said that Air New Zealand had topped the in-flight service polls and if the number of staff was reduced, then the service could not be kept to the same standard.

“It’s a matter of them trying to bring Air New Zealand into line with the other airlines and that is ridiculous because we have a good name over there, and we would be silly to lose it,” he said.

“It is a very long flight, more than 13 hours, with a two-hour drive at the other end, and reducing the staffing skills on that flight would be expecting too much of us.” Mr Best said that the union had set a tentative stop-work meeting date for June 13, but he hoped to

“talk some common sense” into the airline at the meeting tomorrow. '

“Our members are very united on this one, but we hope that we can come to some sort of agreement,” he said. “We don’t like striking, and putting the travelling public to inconvenience.”

Mr Best said the union was also worried about proposals to expand the busi-ness-class section of the Atlantic flight later this year.

The business class would double in numbers, and, as those travellers paid more than economy class, they would expect more service. “With a reduced staff, it would be even more difficult to cope with this and maintain the same standard.”