Air NZ seeking public sympathy, says union

Striking Air New Zealand long-haul cabin crew say the airline may have refused to resume dispute talks until after strike action in a move to garner public sympathy.

The airline and the union representing 1000 cabin crew resume talks later today in a bid to avert further strike action which has interrupted international travel plans of thousands of people.

Flights to Melbourne, Sydney, Singapore and Osaka were cancelled this morning.

The union said that when talks broke down after three and a half months of negotiation, it was left with the feeling the airline would not talk until after a series of 48-hour strikes over the next few days.

Flight Attendants and Related Services Association (FARSA) industrial officer Heather Stanley said: "We feel in a way they were testing us to see how far we would go."

She added it may have been a move by the airline to gain public sympathy.

"It is beginning to look a bit like that because we found that very strange. We have been saying all along, right up to Sunday night, we have been prepared to meet with them," she said.

Further talks were due to begin in Auckland later today as thousands of passengers tried to re-book on other scheduled airline flights or prepared to stay, mostly in Auckland, until they could get on another Air New Zealand flight.

The airline has already cancelled about 30 per cent of its international flights, affecting 15,000 passengers.

The union is claiming a 3.8 per cent wage increase, an extra meal break for some long-haul flights and an extra crew member on the new Boeing 777 aircraft.

The airline had offered 3.3 per cent for the first year, followed by 3.4 per cent and 3.3 per cent in the following two years.

Air NZ general manager international Ed Sims said it was "unfair" of the union to say the airline had refused to talk until after the strikes as a public sympathy bid.

He said it was a particularly aggressive strike and after the last round of talks failed to resolve the issue and strike action was imminent, the airline's first priority was to contact all passengers and get them rebooked on other flights.

After that was done they identified a time to get back to talks with the union.

Even if the strike ended today it was unlikely to airline could contact the thousands of passengers again and restore all the 89 flights it had cancelled over the duration of the three strikes.

Air New Zealand cancelled 15 flights yesterday, a further six today, and expects to cancel 89 flights over the six planned days of strike action.

- NZPA, NEWSTALK ZB