November 1, Unite Union vs Independent Liquor: An invite to fight!

Submitted by Anonymous on 31 October 2006 - 6:10am

Class War
Local

Urgent Urgent Urgent!
Support Independent Liquor Workers

Support Independent Liquor Workers

24-hour strike and community protest in support of workers at Independent Liquor.

Wednesday, November 1 (tomorrow), 3am at Independent Liquor, Boundary Road, Papakura.

Supporters are invited and welcomed to attend at 3am, or as early as possible, or anytime throughout Wednesday. We are offering some transport. The Unite bus will be leaving from the Unite Union office, which is located at 6A Western Springs Road, at 2am on Wednesday morning.

These workers are taking action in support of their pay claims and in opposition to the vicious bullying, intimidation and harassment of union members at this site.

Independent workers are fighting for parity with other brewery workers. For example:

• Workers at Lion and DB receive on average 10% more than Independent Liquor workers for performing the same job.
• The shift allowances at Lion are typically between $27 and $42 per shift while at DB they range from $24 to $36 per shift. At Independent the range is from $12.50 to $15 per shift.
• Overtime rates come in after 40 hours per week or 8 hours per day at Lion and DB. At Independent Liqour, overtime rates are available after 45 hours per week.
• Redundancy at Lion and DB is triple the redundancy arrangements at Independent.

Independent Liquor workers typically earn $300 per week less than Lion and DB workers.

This has been a long, very difficult battle carried out by the workers. The company has stonewalled negotiations and victimised union members. Independent Liquor is now being sold, with the workers left high and dry, and with poor redundancy arrangements.

The company was owned by Michael Erceg who was killed in a helicopter crash last year. Independent Liquor has been hugely profitable and is now valued at more than a billion dollars.

Please spread the word quickly to gain the maximum support we can for this action.

Related

http://unite.org.nz