Union, council clash over petition

The head of the Unite Union says the Auckland City Council has threatened to arrest him and minimum wage campaigners tonight as they petition for signatures outside a Chinese New Year festival.

Matt McCarten said the council's threat came after senior council bureaucrats had two dozen police and security guards surround a campaign stall outside the Lantern Festival at Albert Park festival last night.

The group is campaigning to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

The council instructed the police to arrest everyone but after a stand off for more than an hour the police accepted the union had a right to be there and withdrew, Mr McCarten said.

"After the failure of their attempt to have people arrested last night a senior council bureaucrat Daniel Harrison informed councillor Graeme Easte today that he will tell police to arrest petitioners on the basis that the petition activity is hawking. This is nonsense and a deliberate misuse of council by-laws."

The campaigners would return to their stall tonight and exercise their democratic right, he said.

Mr Harrison, who is coordinating the Lantern Festival, could not be contacted this afternoon.

Mr Easte said he had spoken to Mr Harrison, but did not believe the campaigners could be arrested for hawking as they were not selling anything.

It should be possible to find a compromise, where the petition organisers could collect their signatures from outside the festival area, he said.

However, it appeared that since Princess St, which borders Albert Park, was closed for the festival, both sides of the street were considered to be part of the festival.

"There's a question of the definition of the festival area, unfortunately," he said.

- NZPA