Around 600 workers have already signed the contract, which includes a NZ$500 signing bonus (NZ$1=US$0.52). The remaining 300 refused to sign, citing as their main concern the working hours in the contract. Stagecoach wants to extend the current unpaid three-hour break between "broken" morning and afternoon shifts to six hours for full-time drivers and more for part-time drivers. In addition, tea and meal breaks may occur at irregular times of the day and may be taken on the road, away from canteen and toilet facilities and without shelter or security. Drivers could also be forced to drive for more than five-and-a-half hours without a break, which they describe as a public safety risk.

The workers are also not happy with the 2 percent pay rise offered over each of three years, and the company's increasing use of part-time drivers, who are promised full-time jobs that never eventuate.

The new contract would bring conditions for drivers previously employed by the Yellow Bus Company — bought by Stagecoach one year ago — into line with the poorer conditions already worked by drivers for Stagecoach subsidiary Cityline. Already the company's cost-cutting has resulted in layoffs of maintenance staff and plans being made to contract out much of this work.

The October 7 picket lines, which were planned to run over the morning traffic peak, were almost entirely respected by drivers who had already signed the contract. They reported for work, but refused to drive their buses out for the rest of the day. More picket lines were set up in the afternoon, sending Stagecoach again scrambling to try to cover the evening peak. The company had faced similar problems the previous afternoon, when 300 drivers unexpectedly walked out after a union meeting where they had voted unanimously to reject the contract.

In an attempt to deflect the anger of passengers away from itself and towards the union, Stagecoach began taking out quarter-page newspaper advertisements, giving people a free phone number to call. Union members produced an informational poster which they pasted up around town. Two main unions represent the drivers, the Tramways Union and the Bus Enterprise Employees Society. The New Zealand Herald pitched in to try to stir resentment against the drivers with an editorial calling the Tramways Union "anachronistic." It accused them of "holding commuters to ransom" and "driving commuters back to their cars." Echoing the concerns expressed by many big business voices about a likely Labour Party victory in the November general elections, it said the drivers' action "bodes ill for the Labour Party's plan to replace the Employment Contracts Act with a new law that will strengthen the position of trade unions. All too quickly, that muscle could threaten economic growth and jobs."

Drivers are continuing to press their demands, with further picket lines set up in the afternoon of October 15, after union delegates (shop stewards) walked out of talks with the company that day. An earlier offer from the unions to call in an industrial mediator was rejected by the company.  
 

Other labor battles

A couple of weeks earlier, on September 17, some 60 workers employed by United Cleaning Services, who wash airline food trays, organized a picket at the Auckland international air terminal. They were protesting having to reapply for their jobs with the airline catering firm Caterair because it had not renewed its contract with the cleaning company.

Meanwhile, firefighters won a major victory October 12, when the Court of Appeal upheld an Employment Court ruling preventing their employer, the Fire Service Commission, from axing 300 jobs and cutting fire-engine crews from four to three. The ruling followed an 18-month campaign waged by firefighters which won broad support from other unionists and working people. Responding to the news in an interview on Television One's evening news bulletin October 12, one firefighter said, "It's a good victory for the firefighters, but more importantly, it's a victory for the average worker of New Zealand."

In another dispute, pilots employed by domestic air carrier Ansett New Zealand began voting October 15 on a proposal by their organization, the Airline Pilots' Association (ALPA), to sign the company's proposed contract. The proposal calls for laying off 35 pilots and increased flying hours for the remainder. The pilots held four 24-hour strikes through August and September, before being locked out September 16 for refusing to sign this contract. ALPA officials said their recommendation was based on information that Ansett had recruited 20 pilots to act as strikebreakers. Nine pilots had already signed the contract and have been operating during the lockout, together with a handful of management pilots.  
 
 
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