Air NZ customers concerned by Easter strike threat

Air New Zealand has been fielding calls from customers worried their Easter travel plans will be disrupted. Photo / Dean Purcell

Air New Zealand says it has been fielding calls from customers concerned their Easter travel plans will be disrupted by proposed cabin crew strike action.

Flight attendants who are members of the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU), working for Air NZ subsidiary Zeal, say they are being paid "poverty wages", while those working directly for the parent company receive up to $30,000 more a year.

The EPMU announced industrial action yesterday, including a three-day strike to take place beginning April 8, saying six months of negotiations with Air New Zealand had failed.

However, the airline said it had gone above and beyond during negotiations to reach a realistic settlement with the Zeal crew.

"Our offer of a 4.5 per cent pay increase for 15 months was extremely generous when set against the backdrops of a global economic meltdown, mass redundancies and a bloodbath on the Tasman due to foreign airlines dumping capacity," Air New Zealand group general manager short haul airlines Bruce Parton said.

Had the workers accepted the offer they would have earned between $40,000 and $60,000 annually for working a 30-hour week.

Mr Parton said the Zeal crew were attempting to hold holiday-makers' Easter plans to ransom and customers were in disbelief.

Staff had been fielding queries from customers frustrated by the proposed strike, he said.

"Naturally, we share the disappointment of those travellers who are looking forward to reuniting with loved ones and friends over the Easter break."

However, EPMU national aviation organiser Strachan Crang said the workers simply wanted a fair deal.

"All we have heard from Air New Zealand are absurd attempts to portray our members as overpaid and unreasonable but the figures they quote are inflated and don't account for the thousands of dollars of work-related costs our members have to bear to meet company policy," he said.

"Despite six months of negotiations and several mediations the company has failed to answer our members' biggest question - `why are they paid so much less for doing the same job, in the same uniforms and flying to the same destinations than crew employed directly by Air New Zealand'?"

The company said yesterday it had contingency plans for the period of the planned strike and it expected minimal disruption for customers.

The strikes would affect A320 aircraft Tasman and Pacific Island flights . No domestic or long-haul flights would be affected.

- NZPA