Bunnings workers to strike in New Zealand after 850 votes cast in favour of action

The workers across 21 Hamilton Bunnings stores have proceeded to carry out strike on Wednesday after the dispute involving rosters reached its extreme.

The strike will be followed by another one on Friday as 850 Bunnings workers from around the nation have voted in favour of the action this week. At 11:00 a.m., workers gathered to vote if they wanted the strike. On Friday, workers from seven Bunnings stores in the lower north island would gather to carry out the scheduled strike.

FIRST Union Retail and Finance secretary Maxine Gay has released a statement confirming gathering of workers from 21 stores and conduction of votes on whether the strike would occur at 11:00 a.m. She said that this was the largest strike in the retail sector in 2015, which is supposed to ruin the festive market.

“The workers at Bunnings are sending a very clear message: they want a fair say over their rosters,” Gay said in a statement. “Under the current collective agreement roster changes must be made with ‘mutual agreement’ between managers and workers. But Bunnings CEO Jacqui Coombes wants to hand managers the power to impose rosters on the workforce.”

According to Gay, handing over the power to managers would prompt rosters to chop and change with negligible visibility. This would affect the festive season market as families would hardly accept frequently changing market. Gay added that working people know the importance of their time for families and hence the CEO must understand that nothing could compensate for the family time.

The Bunnings stores to hit the strike on Wednesday and Friday include the ones at Botany, Manukau, New Lynn, Te Puke, Mt. Wellington, Glenfield, Mt. Roskill, Rotorua, Te Rapa, North Shore, Paeroa, Whangamata, Mt. Maunganui and Pukekohe from North Island. In the South Island, the strike would be conducted by stores in Dunedin, Nelson, Shirley, Blenheim and Riccarton.

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