21 December 2005

A lightning strike was called today at KFC Lincoln Rd by mother of five KFC shift manager, Susan Tuanui in response to the Government raising the adult minimum wage by only 75c and not removing youth pay discrimination.

Tuanui said that a pay rise of 75c per hour would only give her an extra $20 in the hand if she worked 40 hours a week. But she would still need to work over 40 hours a week to break the $400 mark.

Tuanui supports five children and says that a 75c per hour pay rise will make little difference to how hard she has to work to afford to feed her family. In her managerial role she currently gets paid $10.36 an hour when she's not running a shift and $12.86 when she is.

Photos of lightening strike

Saturday, 17 December 2005

Despite the pouring rain, striking Pizza Hut workers served up pieces of a giant pizza for a fair slice of the multinational brands profits and to raise awareness of the disproportionate number of migrant workers living on minimum wage in New Zealand.

The strike is the third Unite strike at a multinational brand and follows the world’s first Starbucks strike and a youth-led strike at KFC against age based pay discrimination. It forms part of the SuperSizeMyPay.Com campaign for a NZ$12 minimum wage, no youth rates and secure hours.

Photos available here

Friday, December 16 2005

Migrant workers will be serving up slices from a giant pizza tomorrow as part of the next SuperSizeMyPay.Com strike action at the Royal Oak Pizza Hut restaurant, 12 noon at 711 Mt Albert Rd, Auckland, Saturday 17th of December.

SuperSizeMyPay.Com campaign co-ordinator Simon Oosterman said the fast-food workers were striking to raise public awareness of the disproportionate number of migrant workers on low pay and minimum wage in New Zealand, particularly in Auckland where two thirds of migrants live and study and where the costs of living are highest.

“70% of the striking Pizza Hut store’s workers are migrants or international students. They are often told they do not have enough ‘Kiwi’ experience to seek better paid work elsewhere and have no choice but to work in low-paid and low-skill jobs. Up to one hundred percent of workers in many Pizza Hut stores are either new migrants or international students from India, China and the Pacific Islands amongst others.”

Kia Ora Koutou,

Thank you for supporting the SuperSizeMyPay.Com campaign for a fair $12 minimum wage, no youth rates and secure hours.

The SuperSizeMyPay.com campaign has only been running for three weeks and already the local and international response has been astounding.

We will be keeping you up-to-date with regular e-newsletters about our campaign and what you can do to help low paid and minimum wage workers in Aotearoa/New Zealand. (Our restaurant worker newsletter is available at http://www.supersizemypay.com/workers.)

Five days after a youth-led strike at a KFC store to highlight workplace discrimination based on age, the Minimum Wage Amendment Bill was chosen in parliament.

Last week young members of Unite Union, earning as low as $7.13 went on strike at the million dollar refurbished Balmoral KFC store to begin a public debate about pay discrimination based on age.

Sue Bradford’s Minimum Wage (Abolition of Age Discrimination) Amendment Bill, which was pulled from the ballot in parliament today, seeks to remove wage discrimination for 16 and 17 year-olds.

“Unite welcomes Sue Bradford's work to end youth rates through a private members Bill.” Grace Millar, Unite Secretary, said today. Tomorrow Sue Bradford will put her Minimum Wage (Abolition of Age Discrimination Bill) in the private member's Bill ballot.

“Ruth Dyson, Minister of Labour, recently said that if a 17 year old was doing the same work as a 25 year old, then they'd have a case to make to be paid the same. With this Bill the Greens have recognised that 17 year-olds throughout the country are doing exactly the same work as 25 year-olds, but being paid less.”

Monday 5th December

SuperSizeMyPay.Com Campaign Supports Health Workers Decision to Strike

The SuperSizeMyPay.Com campaign is supporting health workers from the National Union of Public Employees in their decision to strike before Christmas, some of whom start on as low as $9.70 an hour.

NUPE represents mental health nurses, Allied Health workers like dental therapists, occupational therapists and social workers, clerical workers (whose pay rates start at $9.70), maintenance trades staff and information services staff in Wellington, Nelson, Marlborough, West Coast and Canterbury.

Friday, December 02, 2005

KFC workers in Balmoral went on strike today in pposition to youth rates, which allow young workers to be paid less for doing the same work as their older counterparts.

More than 150 strikers and supporters turned up for the event, which was organised by the Unite workers union as part of the SuperSizeMyPay.Com campaign, with representatives from other KFC stores as well as the Green party, the Maori party, and the Workers Charter all aiding the effort.

The Post Primary Teachers Association, the union representing secondary school teachers, was also backing the strike.

Photo Gallery

Friday, December 02, 2005

Young workers in a small country at the bottom of the world are taking industrial action against multinational fast-food brands in a bid to create decent working conditions for low paid and minimum wage workers.

New Zealand KFC workers are striking tomorrow at 2pm New Zealand time, as part of the SuperSizeMyPay.Com campaign to raise the minimum wage to NZ$12, abolish youth rates and gain secure working hours.

The campaign was launched by the Unite Union at last weeks world-first Starbucks strike. [1]

Simon Oosterman, coordinator for the SuperSizeMyPay.Com campaign, said the strike was significant internationally as it was organised by predominately young, casualised workers in multinational brands that have been difficult to unionise globally. [2]

“Young workers earning as low as NZ$7.13 an hour voted 100% in favour of striking at their million dollar refurbished KFC store last week,” he said. [3]

“Fast food chains are the highest employers of youth in New Zealand, with 60% of the workers in the striking store being under 18 years of age,” he said.