24 February 2006

"Pull out of job cut tailspin" Greens tell Air New Zealand

"Air New Zealand should pull out of its job-shedding tail spin," Green Party Industrial Relations spokesperson Sue Bradford says.

Air New Zealand announced today that it is to lay off a further 470 workers in the operational and customer facing sections of its business.

"These layoffs come hard on the heals of cuts to aircraft engineering and cleaning services at the airline. There seems no end to Air New Zealand's slash and burn policies towards its workforce," Ms Bradford says.

"I am appalled to hear from the Air New Zealand unions that once again there was no consultation with the workforce or unions before this latest job-purge was announced. The airline's action is entirely in bad faith and the complete opposite of what should be expected from a good employer.

"Air New Zealand is 82% owned by the tax-payers of NZ. We bailed out Air New Zealand because of the disastrous decisions of the former owners and management. We did not do this to see Air NZ become a mean, anti-worker company making more bad decisions.

"The Government shareholding ministers can no longer wash their hands of the shocking industrial relations behaviour of the airline.

"One also has to wonder what role former trade union leader, Ken Douglas, is playing on the Board of Air New Zealand," Ms Bradford concludes.

ENDS

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