Here is a quick look at…..
for some of our colleges who are mothers striking today…..
lockout/strike the last day!
Well today was the last day of our lockout/strike and in my opinion we went out with a bang……in Christchurch they picketed in 4 degree temperatures in the hail with no shelter! Now if that’s how dedicated we are when we’re not being paid, how much effort will we put into our work when we are? Hopefully you’ll soon find out!
In Auckland people showed up today who hadn’t been out to picket yet so that was a real team boost, and great back up I must say as those people who have been there since the first day have lost there voices!
It was great to see everyone out there with their families today it was a very interesting mothers, a lot more family involvement today which was great to see…. Trying to get a site inspection of the planes today, we were told we needed to give more notice as all the management were at home with their families today and there was no one to take them airside….. It’s nice to know that Air NZ management are able to spend this special day with their families, never happens that way for real shift workers!
Although if they have been covering our shifts to the rest periods we have in our contract (we get usually 12 hours between a 10 hour duty) they’ll be exhausted having done that 3days in a row, so enjoy your day off managers! We usually do 4-6 days in a row…..maybe you can give that a go next time around?
In the Herald today…..
liars!
Needs to get his facts and comments in order. First of all does Bruce even listen to us? We want pay EQUAL to DOMESTIC crew not long haul. He commented we get a starting rate of $43,000 a year which is totally misleading… there was a payslip shown on 3 News stating $28,000 a year. He also said we work a 30 hour week and the same pay slip showed 111 hours of work for a two week period so that’s a lot less money for a lot more hours. Being paid 10% more than Tasman airline competitors? I have friends at Qantas and Pacific blue they take home more money than I do every pay day and they spend days away in Samoa and Sydney to name a few we do flights there and back, no down time in tropical places for us! and emirates does the Tasman too, do they get paid less than us? and What’s the percentage difference in the Air NZ contracted crew who work our Tasman flights every week? domestic crew and long haul crew run flights over the Tasman and how much are you paying them? If he’s blatently lying about this how can anyone belive anything he says?
He also saidno flights will be disrupted or cancelled by our strike and that they could cover us for as long as we want to continue this strike for….well for a fact there was several delays and I know of at least 7 flights cancelled and who knows how many others will be in the next few days….and sarcastic comments about sighting boarding passes as a very important job is childish for someone who is meant to be a professional! It is an important job, most people assume it’s to check your seat number and it isn’t you check the flight number and the date to make sure people are getting on the right plane, it happens a lot that people try to board the wrong flight and it’s our checking these tickets that prevent this from happening , we are also screening people as they come on we’re taught this in training as part of our security section, you’re screening people to check for unusual behaviors from people that could become unruly if they’re intoxicated or sick or on drugs….we come across a lot of people who aren’t in the right state of mind to be flying…..this is an important job Bruce take it seriously or go home!
Out of curiosity how much are you BRUCE being paid to cover our Zeal strike, what’s your income for the 4 days you are pitching in for?…..and the strike breakers covering us how much are there salaries I bet they are not being paid the competitive salaries we do the work for?
The support from the public has been over whelming and it is much appreciated, xoxo Zeal girl
the lead up!
Today there were a lot of good feelings around, as everyone got together painting signs and organising for our protest tomorrow there will be people in Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland all out telling the people and particularly Air NZ that this lock out/strike we won’t take it lying down…..we want FAIR CONDITIONS and PAY! It only seems fair!
People haves asked us why we stick around if we don’t like the way we are treated why don’t we just leave? As I have commented already, there are 2 main reasons in particular for me…..
Firstly….’how often can you find a person who really loves there job? well we at Zeal are those people…I can honestly say I love my job! the day to day tasks of my job are what get me out of bed in the morning I get to meet over 300 new people everyday I get to make their travels into….
Let it be getting children to hand out the lollies or wishing happy birthday or anniversary to people going away to celebrate. Just last week I had a couple who had saved there money for two years to come to NZ for a holiday from Australia as it happened when they arrived in NZ they got a dreaded phone call from there daughter saying there grandson had died in a tragic car accident, 24hrs later in the same clothes they end up on my flight back to OZ to be with there family both utterly upset I took them tea and what ever I could do to comfort them I sat and listened to stories about there grandson…I even cried with them, but it was an amazing experience to be there like that for people I just met….they will never forget that flight and neither will I. Working on the A320 every day is different even tho we go there and back in a day (where ever there maybe) you know you’ve made a difference to someone and there travels that day.
Secondly If I leave now the next person will have to stand up for fair working conditions and pay, and if they don’t like it and leave it’ll be the person after them….when will it end? If we don’t take a stand now who will?
Like I said I love my job!
We all do that is why we are Standing Strong!
You will see me and the rest of the Zeal crew out there tomorrow and for the next few days at those picket lines taking a stand for what we believe in, to have passion for a job like this is hard to find, lets appreciate that!
THANK YOU for all your support Zeal Girl xo
the reality $
Well another sleepless night as I think about the the week ahead and how my bills are building up around me, not a lot I can do about this at the moment.
I do remind myself there are crew in more hardship than me, one lady I have heard about is living in her garage and renting out her house to meet the mortgage payments, not trying to single out fellow crew but her story does give you a realistic picture of what we at Zeal are being faced with everyday, this particular woman is on admin duties due to injury so she is having to live on just over $1000 a month after tax.
Our contract and the way our pay scheme works is we get a low income base salary, for a junior it is roughly $28-29,000 a year and a manager is about $35-36,000 a year and for every hour your flying you get $4.87 tax free as a duty allowance so if your injured and can’t fly or off sick or on your annual leave you have to live on your base salary for that period of time.
There is no room for error or any unexpected bills, a lot of the crew rely on eating aeroplane food as they cannot afford groceries, if you don’t do any flying as a junior you take home just over $360 a week after tax that’s less than most peoples weekly out goings (for everything)
So when people like our bosses at Air NZ call us greedy for wanting a larger increase in our wages, most people tend to get around 4% and we’re asking for 26% it looks horrific in a percentage but when you take 4% of the base salary we’re on it still isn’t livable with a 24% increase that would bring us up to the equivalent of our domestic counter parts at Air NZ.
If I work a ten hour flight duty, 5 days a week, I get my $360 after tax and $48.70 for every day, that’s a totall take home pay of $603.50 per week keep in mind dry cleaning the uniform, a pair of stockings for work costs $8 so if you snag one of those thats 2 hours of pay gone… then theres make up and petrol all requirements for work. our Air Nz counter parts have allowances for these…for us it’s all inclusive in our $4.87 per hour.
Once you take out the work related costs, your rent and basic foods that’s it, it’s all gone! these are the numbers circling my head all night and the incoming doesn’t add up to my out goings all I need is one electrical bill or a phone bill to upset this balancing act!
stressed out Zealgirl
Dirty tactics
Hi all,
after talking to many cabin crew recently some even having a good cry, it has come to my attention that building up to this inevitable strike action Air New Zealand has been over working half of the crew to the point of fatigue, and emotional break downs, they’re too scared to call in fatigued or sick, as if you do this more than 5 times in a year you do not get any consideration for promotion. these crew members have been working to the bone, they’ve even fallen asleep in the jump seats during take off and landing.
The other half of this story is Air New Zealand has been taking duties off people and giving them to strike breakers….management, and concierges to build up there experience, this is leaving crew with 6-10 days of work in a 28 day roster, this seems to be tactical bullying as these people will only be receiving $700-800 every two weeks, how can you afford to strike or save money for the strike when that is your income leading up to industrial action?
Air New Zealand isn’t playing fair at all!
there was an article recently staying there will be 3 trained cabin crew on every flight as to the Civil Aviation Authorities standard, but they want people at Air New Zealand to volunteer with handing out the food and drink, aside from the hilariousness image I get of my management team trying to figure out if the pies are cooked enough, I worry about the ability of the trained crew.
I have heard through crew that one of these strike breakers asked this crew member to arm the door for him as he wasn’t confident enough to do it! arming a door, is serious stuff! it is the difference between the slides inflating in an emergency and no slide at all, it’s a long way down from up there without it… and another strike breaker being asked what the doors 1 and 4 emergency drill is before being allocated there work position for the day, ” ummmm I don’t know but I have been taught to check outside the window before opening the door” that is not the procedure in an emergency and that is the level of training and confidence these strike breakers are coming onto the A320 with, it is concerning to hear these experiences from our crew!
conspiracy
So words from a pilot, The wig wearing suspended crew from Christchurch a few weeks back who were blamed for delaying 60 passengers from there travels was actually a planned set up from Air New Zealand, as soon as that plane was announced cancelled the pilots flew the plane empty up to Auckland where they had strike breakers ready and waiting for training, the plane did domestic runs all day as a select few training these scabs.
Trying to blame and intimidate these cabin crew in front of the public, when all that time they had picked this flight to cancel as it had low loadings of passengers they decided to use this plane to train strike breakers, it cancellation never had anything to do with the way the crew were dressed.
It shows a totally lack of respect for staff and there passengers!
We had crew dressed the same as these four crew members for days so how else can you explain only the one flight being cancelled!
out of sight out of mind
Hi All,
Today I went to fill out the annual Employment Culture Survey, once you fill out the survey and voice your likes and dislikes about daily work experiences, it comes to a graph it has all the sections at Air New Zealand to show how many people from each section have filled it out. Now theres Short Haul Crew (Domestic) then there is International Crew (Long Haul) there’s even the China based crew, and A320 Pilots to name a few but no where does it mention Zeal320/A320 crew.
Do they not want to know what our opinions are? again feeling like a second class employee, as this isn’t the first time we’ve been swept under the rug by Air New Zealand. (Segregate, out of sight out of mind)
a very long days work
An unfortunate situation that happened today. Crew are on the 4th day of a four day trip away from friends and family and a familiar bed, and as they woke up at 4am this morning in Wellington, thescheduled wake up was 4.15am. they got up as per normal, to find a fax under the door with a rescheduled departure time the new wake up time was now to be 5.45am, for a 6.45am pickup. Because they were set to wake up for 4.15am, they were well awake for the scheduled time to depart, once they reached the Wellington International Airport, they were further delayed for another hour, so the departure time was now 8.30am.
As they were waiting for the aircraft to arrive, The Inflight Service Manager called crew control in regards to catching their connecting flight from Sydney back to Auckland after their working duties. She spoke to Crew control and the coordinator at the time told her they would be catching a later flight with a scheduled departure at 15.30pm local time. For a scheduled arrival of 20:30 back to Auckland. So this day has turned into a 16.15 hour working day. By contract Zeal320 crew can only work for up to 16 hours in a disrupt.
They arrived in Sydney at 10.30 local time and discovered NZ704 was departing for Auckland at 11:30am local time, ground staff called crew control to organise transferring them onto that flight. They were then advised that they would not transfer them, due to ‘operational reasons’. They were told to contact the Cabin Crew Development Manager for more information upon this decision. They called the managers and there was no answer.
Turns out the crew working the aircraft home were strike breakers, for the Zeal320 dispute and so these Zeal crew were left at Sydney airportfor five hours after having already worked since 5am this morning. Then they had to argue with the Sydney Koru lounge just to come in and have a bite to eat and use the toilets.
another classic days work at Zeal
