Locked-out workers staunch and positive

Sanele Petelo

Sanele Petelo tries to smile although he has not seen a pay cheque in three weeks and his wait could be longer still.

Mr Petelo, a storeman at Progressive Enterprises, was one of about 70 people who gathered at the Pukapuka community centre in Mangere last night at a service for locked-out distribution workers.

Progressive Enterprises, an Australian-owned company, which owns Woolworths, Foodtown and Countdown, remains in a standoff with 500 distribution workers.

With the workers' strike now entering its fourth week, Mr Petelo said things for him and his colleagues were starting to get tough despite their having received assistance from their union and community and church groups.

The union had raised $15,000 for affected families.

"Is it getting harder for us? Very much so but we are trying even harder to resolve the issue," said Mr Petelo.

"There's the financial side of things plus all the added stresses on our families and it's my daughter's wedding next weekend."

His workmate and friend Lofipo Peilua agreed things were getting harder but the workers were confident their union representatives could reach some kind of settlement soon.

"The first week was all right but after four weeks it's bad man," said Mr Peilua, who has eight children.

The workers want to be able to negotiate a national collective agreement for the centres in Auckland, Palmerston North and Christchurch and are taking Progressive Enterprises to the Employment Court tomorrow to challenge the legality of the lockout.

A spokeswoman for Progressive Enterprises said she hoped a settlement could be reached soon although its offer of a 4 per cent payrise a year fixed for three years was rejected last week.

She said Progressive would be standing firm on its position of three single collective agreements for workers in the three different centres.

"Of course we would be very happy to find a resolution but this must be based on the three existing collective agreements," she said.

Six Australian transport workers were due in Auckland this morning to join the picket line and organising team for the next two weeks.