Day 199 - 11 Dec 95 - Page 20
1 The 3% rise actually includes non taxable allowance of 99
2 cents per shift already paid to many workers under the
3 union contract.
4
5 So-called guaranteed hours are only a 'target'. Staff lose
6 their right to overtime, sickleave entitlements are
7 reduced, and guaranteed break eliminated.
8
9 Long-serving staff who accept the offer will also lose
10 their penal rates and all staff will find that automatic
11 sick leave is replaced with the manager's discretion.
12
13 With no expiry date, the company plan means no guaranteed
14 pay talks.
15
16 Though the company does promise an annual 'review'
17 McDonald's disbanded store based consultation committees
18 just four weeks after they were set up.
19
20 Teresa Brown worked in McDonald's for four years before
21 joining the SWU as an organiser.
22
23 She was stunned by McDonald's attack on its staff.
24 'McDonald's are forever telling the crew (staff) that the
25 customer is the most important person. What they seem to
26 have forgotten is that it is the crew who make the stores a
27 success'.
28
29 While most staff are expected to sign the new policy the
30 McDonald's move may already have backfired."
31
32 Union membership in the nationwide chain has jumped in the
33 past month and more staff than ever before are looking
34 closely at their employer's real agenda.
35
36 'As a result of the companies move we have had more
37 interest in the union than we've seen for several years',
38 says Teresa. 'With new delegates being elected and new
39 staff signing up as members, the company has handed us a
40 great organising tool'." I will leave out the next
41 paragraph because that is about other companies.
42
43 Then it says: "Same product: Same problems. Across the
44 world McDonald's prides itself on its burgers looking and
45 tasting the same. But behind the smiling service
46 McDonald's has gained an international reputation for low
47 pay and hostility to unions.
48
49 McDonald's drive to push a company driven 'Employment
50 Policy' in place of a collective contract is the latest
51 step in a series of attacks on worker's rights at the fast
52 food giant. It's a move that fits a world wide pattern of
53 wanting to keep unions out of the' family restaurants'."
54
55 I will leave the next paragraph -- it is not about New
56 Zealand.
57
58 "To push through the new policy McDonald's hired the
59 Auckland firm of Teesdale & Meuli. It had successfully
60 pushed a similar programme at Farmers department stores,
