Stop ratting on Porirua supermarket workers

Workers at Porirua PAK’nSAVE were joined by community supporters and a giant inflatable rat, at a picket outside the supermarket today.

PAK’nSAVE workers, members of FIRST Union, have been negotiating for a payrise since August, but the company’s best offer for a checkout worker who has been employed for one year is over a dollar an hour less than it would be in the Countdown just up the road.

A community picket took place from 12 noon today, and another one will take place tomorrow at the same time.

The supermarket pays most workers around the minimum wage, and FIRST Union organiser Richie Morris said Porirua families and the wider community are being ripped off.

“PAK’nSAVE can afford to lift its workers’ wages significantly, but is instead the store is denying a decent income for Porirua workers to properly support their families.”

“Store owner Ivan Jones costs the taxpayer a fortune in state allowances and subsidies to workers because of his refusal to pay decent wages, but he is a very wealthy man.”

Richie Morris said that Kilbirnie PAK’nSAVE has recently negotiated with the union to pay a rate that is 55 cents an hour higher for a checkout operator with one year’s experience than Porirua has offered.

“We are calling on shoppers to shop at Countdown until Mr Jones decides it is time to pay his workers a decent wage so they can meet the ever rising costs in supporting themselves and their families,” Richie Morris said.

Ends.

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