Fresh bid to solve Air N.Z. dispute

Press, 6 October 1989, Page 2

Fresh bid to solve Air N.Z. dispute

By

DAVE WILSON

Air New Zealand’s cabin crew union will seek further negotiations with the airline in a bid to resolve the dispute that led to yesterday’s 24-hour stoppage by union members.

But the union has not ruled out the possibility of further stoppages if it fails to reach agreement with the airline on crewing the new Boeing 747400 ultra-long . haul jets. All Air New Zealand’s domestic passenger services and 11 outgoing international flights were cancelled yesterday as members of the Airline Stewards and Hostesses’ Union attended stopwork meetings in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch to discuss the impasse in their award negotiations. The airline said the stoppage had thwarted the travel plans of more than 8500 passengers. It confirmed the effects of the stoppage would mean delays in some international flights until tomorrow.

The cabin crew union’s secretary, Mr Tom Downey, said there had been overwhelming votes from members to reject Air New Zealand’s award offers.

He said meetings had voted to authorise him and the union assessors to return to negotiations and push for a better deal. If that was not forthcoming, he would not rule out the possibility of further stoppages. "After eight months without any progress the cabin crew feel they have had enough and believed it was time to reflect that feeling to the management,” Mr Downey said. ’ He was upset at Air New Zealand suggestions : that the" cabin -• crews

might abbreviate their stoppage and return to work early yesterday afternoon.

“We are sorry this impression was conveyed to the travelling public.

“I don’t know where the airline got this idea from because the stoppage was always intended to be for a 24-hour period and the airline knew we did not intend returning to work early.” An airline spokesman, Mr Cameron Hill, said at least three outgoing international flights from Auckland would be delayed by up to 15>/£ hours until today, in additon to the 11 international services that were cancelled. He expected the backlog of domestic passengers to be cleared today, but some international service delays would continue until tomorrow.

The only Air New Zealand domestic flights yesterday flew without passengers or cabin crew. Mr Hill said several cargo-only flights were made for the airline’s re-cently-launched First Distribution Network cargo service.

Ansett New Zealand reported a day of full capacity flights and strong bookings for Ansett services today. Ansett did not schedule extra services for yesterday, because it did not have the extra aircraft or crews available. Mount Cook Airline also picked up extra passengers for its Hawker Siddeley 748 services yesterday,; but did notjly at full capacity. ' r > •