Fast food workers rally against zero hour contracts

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Mike Treen addressin the Auckland strike and rally against zero hours on April 15

Hundreds of fast food workers took action around around New Zealand on Wednesday, April 15, and rallied to call for an end to Zero Hour Contracts

Striking McDonalds’ workers took part in marches and pickets in Auckland, Palmerston North, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin on Wednesday, many speaking to the crowds and to the media about the hardship of living with insecure work and income.

The actions in New Zealand kicked off an international day of action by fast food workers targeting low pay, insecure hours and the lack of union rights.

In Auckland 300 workers and supporters (many from other unions) marched up Queen Street, stopping to congratulate workers at Burger King and Starbucks stores who will have secure hours within months and picketing McDonald’s and Wendy’s stores.

Images from the day can be found on our flickr site.

Support from the public was huge, with many bystanders stopping to wish the workers good luck and expressing disgust at McDonald’s failure to commit to ending zero hours.

In Wellington around 150 workers and supporters gathered outside a central city restaurant, convincing many potential customers to eat elsewhere.

Palmerston North saw a community picket of the Rangitikei Street McDonald’s, with union organiser Bonita Belworthy gathering with 30 workers and supporters to let the local McDonalds’ franchisee know that public want them to abandon the contracts now.

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Dunedin and Christchurch both had great turn-out on a cold evening to finish off a huge day of action.

Rallies targeted McDonald’s restaurants after negotiations broke down again on Tuesday.

McDonald’s and Wendy’s are the only major fast food chains to not have reached agreement with Unite Union on ending zero hours.

McDonald’s have been running a deliberate strategy to delay reaching an agreement until the contract expired so they could pay all non-union staff an increase based on the 50 cent an hour increase the minimum wage from April 1. Some franchisees have even illegally refused to increase the minimum wage for union members!

The underlying profitability of the industry was underscored by Restaurant Brands announcing a 20% boost to their profits for last year. Restaurant Brands (KFC, Pizza Hut, Carl’s Jr and Starbucks) was the first to offer to end zero hour contracts and a new collective agreement was signed that guarantees at least 80% of average hours worked over the previous three months. We are also trialling fixed shifts which remain the same from week to week so workers can plan ahead. Both sides assume this will be the end result of a guaranteed hours regime.

Russell McCreedy the Restaurant Brands chief executive continues to claim that they didn’t really have zero hour contracts but that is complete nonsense. Their employment agreements very clearly said: “There is no guarantee that an Employee will be required to work any hours in any given week.”

Burger King have also offered to end zero hours and move to fixed shifts with guaranteed hours within six months. We haven’t yet signed an agreement with them as there remains some outstanding issues around the failure of the company to allow staff to move off the minimum wage. 80% of staff currently remain on the minimum wage despite years of service in many cases.

McDonald’s made a deliberately deceptive offer to the union that claimed to get rid of zero hours and released that offer to the public while we were in bargaining. They said they would guarantee 80% of rostered hours. That formula is simply nonsense. Any company can guarantee 100% of rostered hours because they control the roster. Rosters go up and down. They are at the discretion of the company. The union can’t see them or enforce anything to do with them. On average workers work 20% more than their rostered hours because over employing and under rostering is the essence of the zero hours regime. It keeps workers willing to jump at offers of more hours. That is why we decided to use the formula of 80% of hours worked with Restaurant Brands. We can monitor and enforce that formula.

Wendy’s have also failed to offer guaranteed hours. They also claim that they roster everyone some hours each week. That may be true but the number of hours is completely at the discretion of the company. The use of rosters to reward and punish remains there. Just this week I had a Wendy’s worker in tears because she was being refused a sick leave day and was scared to argue with the company over the matter because she feared her hours being cut the following week.

Sally’s story and why we need to end zero hour contracts

Unite remains determined to end zero hour contract regime at Wendy’s and McDonald’s. Here is the reason why.Last night I had a McDonald’s worker tell me her story. It is not unusual. I will call her Sally but that is not her real name. She is also concerned at the possibility of being victimised by the McDonald’s franchise owner who employs her.
Sally moved into West Auckland around September 2013. She needed work and went to WINZ for support. After six months she was taken to a local McDonald’s franchisee for a job. She had actually worked at Macca’s before so that was no problem.She said she was available for work seven days a week from 6am to 9pm. She said she needed at least 20 hours a week just to feed herself but wanted 40. She was told she would start on at least 15 but that would improve as she showed she could do the work. WINZ offered to subsidise her wages during the initial period of short hours but she said no as she was confident they would improve quickly. Very soon she was working 30 plus hours a week and WINZ checked with her that that was the case.
Sally thinks that the franchisee was given a subsidy from WINZ for taking her off the benefit.Shortly after that however the franchise owner started to cut her hours back to only 15 to 18 hours a week. Sally was constantly hungry. For a period she was reduced to eating bread and potatoes. She also had a sick father staying with her but the combined income of a sickness benefit and the McWage from McDonald;s just wasn’t enough. She remembered with sadness that she couldn’t by her brother a birthday present. Bills piled up.

After repeated complaints to her managers that she needed at least 20 hours just to eat the hours were put back up again to 20 to 25. This was still not enough to live properly as she also had bills that had accumulated that needed clearing.

She has been at the franchise for a little over one year now. During that period he has constantly hired new staff. She has never been offered hours of existing staff who have left even though she has very open availability. However she was one of those who was always being called up on her days off to cover for others. She was deliberately being kept “hungry for hours” as she put it to me.

Sally’s case is not unusual. We have had McDonald’s taking staff from WINZ and getting a wage subsidy for six months by guaranteeing them 30 hours a week for that period. But when the subsidy expires the workers go on the same contract as everyone else – a zero hours one with no guaranteed hours. Previously Unite has questioned why a profitable company like McDonald’s had received at least $270,000 from WINZ as a wage subsidy between July 2009 and June 2013.

The zero hours regime is not a rostering mechanism. It is a tool to bully and abuse staff. It shouldn’t exist in the 21st Century in New Zealand. That is the message that needs to be continually delivered to McDonald’s and Wendy’s over the coming months.The government needs to also get the message. Some of the statements from the Minister responsible have been slippery in the extreme as to what type of contracts will be covered by the promised legislation against zero hour contracts. The key thing to watch for is whether he restricts the ban to situations where workers are sitting at home waiting for a phone call to come to work. That is only the most extreme type of zero hour contract.

Most workers covered by a zero hour contract do end up on a roster a week in advance but they still have no control over how many hours they work and limited control over when they work.The Restaurant Association of New Zealand has made this explicit in a draft contract they use for restaurant owners in NZ which simply says you will be available 365 days a year and work whatever day or time we roster you!

There will be another national day of action to end zero hour contracts on Friday May 1 – International workers day. Contact Unite if you can help on that day.

MEDIA LINKS TO APRIL 15 ACTION AGAINST ZERO HOUR

Wellington Video (NZ Herald website) http://www.nzherald.co.nz/national/news/video.cfm?c_id=1503075&gal_cid=1503075&gallery_id=149306

Palmerston North and Wellington Video and report (Stuff.co.nzhttp://www.stuff.co.nz/business/67756727/mcdonalds-staff-strike-over-zero-hours

TVNZ 6pm news http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/mcdonalds-locked-in-stalemate-workers-video-6288863

NZ Herald: Editorial: Guarantee minimum work hours http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11433292

NZ Herald: McDonald’s offers fresh contract talks
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11433264

Morning Report: Union targets McDonald’s in ramped up contracts campaignhttp://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/20174923/union-targets-mcdonalds-in-ramped-up-contract-campaign

AUDIO: STRIKES AT MCDONALD’S SITES TODAY OVER ZERO-HOUR CONTRACTS http://www.radiolive.co.nz/AUDIO-Strikes-at-McDonalds-sites-today-over-zero-hour-contracts/tabid/506/articleID/79009/Default.aspx

ZB Radio with Mike Hoskings:
Mike Treen: Union strike http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast-with-asb/audio/mike-treen-union-strike/
Chris Hutton: McDonald’s Strike http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast-with-asb/audio/chris-hutton-mcdonalds-strike/

Gerard Hehir on Paul Henry Show (National Radio and TV breakfast show) http://www.3news.co.nz/tvshows/paulhenry/interviews/mcdonalds-needs-to-drop-zero-hour-contracts—union#axzz3XLmKhbJx

McDonalds locked in stalemate with workers (1:53http://m.tvnz.co.nz/news/video/business/6287108/?videoId=ref:6288863

Pictures: ‘End zero hour contracts!’ – McDonald’s staff stand in solidarity http://tvnz.co.nz/business-news/pictures-end-zero-hour-contracts-mcdonald-s-staff-stand-in-solidarity-6287108

Campbell Live:McDonald’s customers’ thoughts on zero-hour contracts McDonald’s customers’ thoughts on zero-hour contracts http://www.3news.co.nz/tvshows/campbelllive/mcdonalds-customers-thoughts-on-zero-hour-contracts-2015041519#axzz3XHD7try4

Maori TV: Protesters demand an end to ‘zero-hours’ contract http://www.maoritelevision.com/news/regional/protesters-demand-end-zero-hours-contracts

3 COMMENTS

  1. This ALL can be boiled down to :

    WHO THE HELL (would sanction such a concept as “ZERO HOURS”)…in this day & age of (supposedly techno -makes life “easier”?? struggle.

    ANS = The {Owners} of these corporations.
    Those who hold >majority of Shares<

    Therefore , the ONLY way to destroy this false concept,

    is to BOYCOTT .

    (ie to starve them at the roots)

    AFTER ALL, THEY ARE A PARASITE. (to people's not having enough time to do nearly anything ..to sustain life themselves. Incl. home (free of additives+other toxic) COOKING.

  2. Back in the late 60s and early 70s one of the big ideas of capitalist ideology was “the leisure society”.

    Marx was pooh-poohed and we were told the biggest problem facing humanity in the future, at least in the most developed capitalist countries, would be what we’d do with all the leisure time we would have due to machines doing most of our work.

    Whatever happened to the leisure society?
    https://rdln.wordpress.com/2012/04/03/whatever-happened-to-the-leisure-society/

    The reality of NZ capitalism for most workers is working either longer than before or not enough hours to make ends meet, working harder and faster and for worse pay:
    https://rdln.wordpress.com/2012/02/08/low-pay-longer-hours-and-less-social-mobility/

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