Morning Prayer Meeting at Synovate Dir.'s House

Early Morning Prayer Meeting at Synovate Director's House
Union Launches Lock Out Solidarity Fund on Day 4 of the Lock Out
Flying Pickets will visit Synovate clients on Tuesday
Australian unions plan action in Melbourne

Unite Union Press Release
9AM 13/04/09

Union members and organisers held a dawn Prayer Meeting outside the Director of Synovate's house today. Quotes from the Bible such as, "What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul," were read out over megaphones in the quiet Epsom street.

Around 30 South Auckland call centre workers remain locked out by their British owners for refusing to accept a wage increase that will not even cover the cost of inflation. New Zealand workers are paid the legal minimum wage of NZ$12.50, less than half of the AUS$22 that workers get in Australia. Workers were notified by the company via text that they were locked out on Good Friday and told not to come back to work unless they had quit the union.

Yesterday it was revealed that Synovate workers in New Zealand are being used to call into Australia to do research for major banks and insurance companies such as MediBank and BankWest. New Zealand research workers are told to lie to Australians over the phone and say they are calling from Perth.

The news has angered the Australian union that represents close to 3000 market researchers. The National Union of Workers (NUW) is organising actions at Synovate client's offices in Melbourne early this week. NUW organisers will also be circulating support petitions amongst it's members at Synovate call centres in Australia, some of whom have lost jobs because of outsourcing to New Zealand.

A Solidarity Fund has been launched and the union is appealing for donations in New Zealand and Australia to support the locked out workers.

"Synovate are attempting to starve our union members into accepting a 20 cent wage increase, when they globally made more than ₤42 million in profit last year," said Unite General Secretary Matt McCarten.

"We hope workers around New Zealand will give generously to support union members who refuse to accept poverty wages and to be bullied by this ruthless multinational corporation."

"On Tuesday flying pickets will be visiting the clients of Synovate in central Auckland, including ASB Bank and the StudyLink Services. Government departments and corporations that use Synovate for market research should be demanding that the company end the lock out and pay workers living wages," continued Mr. McCarten.

"We expect this dispute to be resolved in Tuesday afternoon but if the company refuses to move from it's position we will have no choice but to continue this global struggle for justice for call centre workers. Hard working South Aucklanders deserve more than $12.70 a week," concluded Mr. McCarten.

Lock Out Solidarity Fund
Account Name: Unite Community Union
Account Number: 12-3022-0406830-00

Flying Picket
Where: Meet at Unite House, 300 Queen Street.
When: 10am Tuesday 14th April
Contact: campaign@unite.org.nz

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