A union says strike action will go ahead at The Warehouse tomorrow.
A union says strike action will go ahead at The Warehouse tomorrow.
Union members at The Warehouse are expected to go on strike at two stores in different cities tomorrow.
The Herald understands a strike notice will be issued before 1pm today and industrial action at Palmerston North and WestCity mall in West Auckland is expected tomorrow afternoon.
First Union organisers saida 4 per cent pay rise offer, and a zero pay rise offer for new starters, was not good enough.
The Warehouse Group, however, said the strike action was disappointing and the company faced an extremely challenging trading environment.
“These are retail workers across a variety of roles from checkout to shop floor to stock room,” organiser Nicholas Mayne said.
He expected staff from other stores to join the striking workers tomorrow in a show of support.
“They’ve made a very low pay offer,” First Union’s Bill Bradford said.
“We’re taking action to get an increase on that. We’re looking at The Warehouse being minimum wage employers for a start rate, which is pretty disgusting,” he added.
“And they said they’ve made an offer they’re not going to improve on.
“So we’ve got no choice but to try and persuade them or take some action to increase the offer.
“The company has been definite about being unwilling to pay any more.”
This industrial action did not include staff at Torpedo 7 or Noel Leeming.
Richard Parker, The Warehouse Group chief HR officer, said the company had been negotiating in good faith with First Union about the collective agreement covering staff at The Warehouse and Warehouse Stationery stores.
During the most recent two-year term of that agreement which expired on July 31, team members employed for one year or more received on average a pay increase of 8.93 per cent, he said.
“We’re mindful of the current cost of living challenges and the impact this is having on our team members, and we believe the 4 per cent increase we are offering is fair in what is a particularly challenging trading environment,” Parker added.
He said apart from wage increases, the company offered 26 weeks of parental leave top-up to full pay, additional sick leave, birthday and volunteering leave, long-service benefits and staff discounts across company brands.
“It is disappointing that First Union and our team members who are members of First Union have chosen strike action. We look forward to returning to bargaining to work towards a fair outcome for our team,” he said.
“We’re working hard to minimise any disruption in our impacted stores so we can continue giving our customers the same level of service, particularly during this Father’s Day weekend.”
The Warehouse Group’s net profit slumped in the six months to January 29, dropping 61 per cent to $17.3 million compared with $44.4m the same period a year ago.
And the company said this year restructuring plans would lead to about 340 job cuts.
The retail giant at the time said increased business costs and a slow second quarter during the key Christmas trading period drove the decline in bottom-line profit.
Westpac strike
Meanwhile, Bradford said the union was now in mediated bargaining with Westpac.
Unionised Westpac workers gathered in downtown Auckland on August 9 calling for better pay during the rare bank worker strike.
“They have to be very, very angry to go on strike, but we’ve been trying to negotiate for more than five months,” Bradford told the Herald at the strike that day.
He said Westpac workers since 2021 had pay rises well below the financial and insurance services sector average.
But this week it seemed the two sides had agreed to keep talking and work out a deal.
Airport strike
And at Auckland Airport, cleaners will strike today, according to E tū union.
The union said workers will strike in groups and be on a picket line at the Air New Zealand side of the domestic terminal from 1.30pm until 2.30pm.
The union claimed employer OCS “offered zero increase in recent negotiations”.
Auckland Airport said the action would not impact operations or terminal cleanliness.
Cleaners will strike this afternoon and be on a picket line at the Auckland Airport domestic terminal. Photo / Greg Bowker
“While OCS employees do provide cleaning services to other business operators on the Auckland Airport precinct, Auckland Airport does not employ them to clean the terminals.”
OCS said it was one of 20 organisations that are signatories to a multi-employer collective agreement (Meca) currently being negotiated through the Building Service Contractors of New Zealand (BSCNZ).
Earlier this week the bargaining parties failed to reach agreement on terms of the Meca at mediation, and E tū provided notice of strike action.
“As we are only one of many parties, and are not leading the negotiations, we are unable to comment further,” an OCS spokesperson said.
BSCNZ president Paul Emery said during the last five years, commercial cleaners received wage increases of 33 per cent - double the rate of inflation for the same period.
In addition, there had been five additional sick days and one additional public holiday, he said.
‘‘Cleaning is a low paid and low margin industry. All labour cost increases are passed onto our clients, most of which are private sector business.
“Their response over the last three years is that they cannot continue to pay these levels of increases in the current economic climate.’'
- Additional reporting by Grant Bradley
John Weekes is online business editor. He has covered courts, politics, crime and consumer affairs. He rejoined the Herald in 2020, previously working at Stuff and News Corp Australia.
