Union to release The Warehouse’s “Wal-Mart” plans

Union to release The Warehouse’s “Wal-Mart” plans

The National Distribution Union will for the first time publicly release details of The Warehouse’s “Wal-Mart” style employment plans at stopwork meetings in Auckland this Wednesday 2 December.

Details of negotiations between New Zealand’s largest general retailer and New Zealand’s retail union have been shrouded in secrecy.

NDU Warehouse campaign organiser Simon Oosterman says workers are fed up and want the general public to know the company’s plans and the effects of recent restructuring on workloads and staffing levels.

“The National Distribution Union has serious concerns about the decline in decent work for retail workers following a trend towards increased flexibility, casualisation and part-time hours and away from full employment,” he says.

“The Warehouse, claim to be people first and family friendly but they clearly want to lead the way with a Wal-Mart employment model.”

10,000 of the NDU’s 20,000 union members work in retail shops and distribution centres.

Wal-Mart is the world’s largest employer and has been recognised by human rights organizations and union’s as the worlds most anti-worker and anti-union company.

Warehouse workers will be holding regional stop works in Auckland, Hamilton (for the Waikato region), Wellington and Christchurch. Single store meetings will also be held in Whangarei, Masterton, Blenhiem and Taupo.

The meetings will also be the New Zealand launch of the international campaign Decent Work, Decent Life campaign.

ENDS

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