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Air New Zealand is upset unionists for 1700 ground staff have turned its internationally-recognised koru logo into a pair of scissors to campaign against cuts to their jobs and conditions.
The company would not comment last night on the use of its logo on a mock 'Stop the Cuts' boarding pass, saying only that it was considering a response to an injunction application lodged with the Employment Court in Auckland yesterday afternoon.
Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union secretary Andrew Little, who has been joined by the Service and Food Workers Union in seeking the injunction, confirmed receipt of a letter from Air NZ lawyers objecting to the adapted logo but said he had yet to take legal advice on the issue.
He said the unions were asking the court to "stop the clock" on a 58-day consultation required before the airline can carry out a plan to contract out the workers' jobs to multinational ground services company Swissport in a joint venture with Australia's Transfield Services. The court will hold a judicial conference today with lawyers for both sides to set a hearing date.
Mr Little said the airline had been too slow to provide information about how it reached its decision, how many people would be retained, what their duty hours would be and how much they would be paid.
The proposed cuts are among a raft of cost-reduction measures the company has said are needed for survival against fierce international competition, and which the unions estimate have embroiled almost 3000 of the airline's 10,000-strong workforce.
