The airline’s short-haul cabin crew will walk off the job on Thursday, December 18 if they can’t reach an agreement with the national carrier.
Flight attendants last month announced that they were planning to walk off the job for 24 hours after failing to reach an agreement with the airline over pay and conditions.
Air New Zealand said it had reached agreements “in principle” with unions representing its regional turboprop and widebody jet cabin crew, which had withdrawn their strike notice.
The airline said that meant there was no longer any disruption expected to long-haul or regional travel, although negotiations were still under way with unions representing its short-haul crew, who served domestic, Tasman and Pacific flights.
E tū union, which represents those workers, said it had delayed its planned strike on the basis that progress was being made.
National secretary Rachel Mackintosh said strike action would go ahead if a deal had not been reached by December 18.
“The fact that we made enough headway on the widebody and turboprop crews to reach a settlement, that’s now gone out to members for a vote, is a good sign that progress is possible,” she said.
“Short haul, which is the main trunk flights in New Zealand and the transit flights, they’ve got significant workload and responsibilities and they really need the same respect in progress as the colleagues.”
Mackintosh said crews did not want to cause disruption for passengers, but it was the only tool left for them when negotiations failed.
“This work is important and these crew are essential to the transport system of our country, to making sure that people in New Zealand can get where they need to go.
“They should have decent work conditions to be able to deliver that service.”
Unions have been negotiating with Air New Zealand since April this year.
Air New Zealand chief people officer Nikki Dines said discussions with E tū had been constructive and were progressing well.
“We’re hopeful we’ll reach agreement and have all bargains in a position for our cabin crew to vote as soon as possible.
“At this stage, there is no change to our flight schedule and our focus remains on reaching agreement with E tū and avoiding strike action entirely.”
The withdrawal of strike notice for December 8 was a great outcome for customers, she said.
“We are grateful for the patience and understanding customers have shown while we’ve worked through this. Bargaining at this scale inevitably creates pressure and uncertainty, and we acknowledge the impact this period has had across our cabin crew and wider operation.”
The airline originally estimated that strikes across all of its fleets could affect somewhere between 10,000 to 15,000 customers.
