Airport strike affects hundreds

Press, 25 July 1986, Page 2

Airport strike affects hundreds

Crash firemen and other staff who are members of the Public Service Association will strike from midday today to midday tomorrow. They are unhappy about some aspects of the Government’s plan to make a corporation out of the Civil Aviation Division of the Ministry of Transport.

More than 1300 airline passengers, both international and domestic, have had their travel plans disrupted by a strike at Auckland Airport.

As well as eight domestic flights between Christchurch and Auckland during the strike, international flights between Christchurch and Sydney are affected because communications on Tasman crossings are handled in Auckland.

Eight international flights out of Christchurch will be disrupted. An Air New Zealand spokesman said that where possible the airline would bring flights forward to avoid the strike.

Qantas has had to reschedule its flights to and from Christchurch today to Sunday. QF4S, which was due to arrive from Sydney at 4.35 p.m. today, will not now arrive until 2.20 a.m. on Sunday. The return flight to Sydney which was due to leave at 5.20 p.m. today will now go at 7 a.m. on Sunday. Both flights were fully booked. It is expected to be several days before all international flights are back to normal. The strike was described yesterday by the Minister of Civil Aviation, Mr Prebble, as nonsense. The Government would not buckle to blackmail, and so strikers were just wasting a day’s pay, he said.

More than 8000 people would have their travel plans disrupted, many severely, for no good reason at all. “The P.S.A. has now admitted that none of its members’ jobs are in jeopardy and has also accepted that the Government has no intention of lowering safety standards in the airways system,” he said.

The P.S.A. said, in a telegram released by Mr Prebble, that it still required assurances about pay and conditions, and union coverage rights, after the transition to a new employer in the proposed Airways Corporation.

Mr Prebble said the P.S.A. had no worries about pay or conditions, which were covered by statute and assurances that the new corporation would negotiate with the unions.