Airline staff threaten strike

Press, 24 September 1988, Page 1

Airline staff threaten strike

By

RICHARD CRESSWELL

industrial reporter Reservations and administrative staff at Ansett’s Christchurch Airport offices will go on strike from Monday in support of a relocation allowance. A spokesman for the Canterbury Clerical Workers’ Union, Mr Mike Smith, said office workers from the airport office and Newmans building were being relocated in the Kirk Barclay building in Victoria Street from Monday. Workers are claiming a one-off five-week gross payment to compensate for the disruption. • Airport workers receive a taxfree travel allowance, negotiated by an independent arbitrator in 1979, and based on kilometres travelled to work. “That transport allowance will be lost with the move,” Mr Smith said. Staff would picket the airport today to prevent the company moving computers and office equipment to the central city office, he said. Workers had the support of the Canterbury and Westland Drivers’ Union, Mr Smith said. The company planned to move equipment today and tomorrow. The drivers’ union secretary, Mr Don Cunninghame, said if the picket was legal the drivers would not cross it. The manager of passenger services for Ansett New Zealand, Mr David Squires, said it was “not reasonable” that the transport allowance should continue.