Christchurch line engineers rally outside Orion

Christchurch line engineers rally outside Orion

Christchurch power line engineers in the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) will hold a one hour stop work meeting and rally from 8.30am today outside Orion Group Ltd to support their claim for a 5% pay rise.

EPMU national secretary Andrew Little will speak at the rally on the corner of Armagh St and Manchester St in Christchurch CBD. EPMU members employed by Kinetics, the main contracting company for Orion’s Canterbury power network, will carry placards saying “Where’s the Money?” and “Fair Deal”.

“Last year EPMU members at Kinetics received a 2% pay increase and this year they have only been offered 1.6%, below the annual rate of inflation,” says EPMU national secretary Andrew Little.

"The 1.6% pay rise on offer is, in effect, a pay cut for our members because inflation is set to rise to 6% next year and GST will go up by 2.5% after 1 October,” he says.

“Our members want Orion to know they won’t accept the paltry pay offer they’ve made because it’s demonstrably unfair," he says.

“Orion owns one of the top performing networks in the country. In recent years Kinetics has returned very high returns to Orion in excess of 15% per annum. Orion itself has consistently performed well, returning a stable profit year to year, this year returning $46 million.”

“Orion will also benefit from the cut in company tax the government handed them in the 2010 Budget so we know they can afford to pay more.”

“Nothing in the current economic conditions justifies workers having to take what amounts to a pay cut from employers. We need to see real improvements in wages if workers are to avoid a decline in their standard of living and we are to start closing the gap with Australia.”

150 Kinetics line engineers maintain the power line network across Christchurch and the Canterbury region, 120 of which are EPMU members.

Orion Group Ltd is owned by Christchurch City Council (89.3%) and Selwyn District Council (10.7%) through holding companies.

ENDS

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