Service worker strikes not about the money

Media release
20 July 2007

Service worker strikes not about the money

Current industrial action by service workers in hospitals is not about money, says Business NZ.

Chief Executive Phil O’Reilly says there has been an alarming amount of misinformation about the reasons for the strikes.

“The purpose of the strikes is not to get more money for the workers, since the pay increases have already been agreed to.

“The real purpose is to force a large contracting cleaning company into a multi-employer collective agreement (meca).

“A meca is the same thing as we had in the 1970s and ‘80s – sector-wide collective bargaining by unions on behalf of everyone in the sector.

“This brought us the highest level of strikes on record and we don’t want to go back there.

“It needs to be made very clear that the strikes against Spotless Services are not about money, but about union power.”

ENDS

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