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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Dear APWSL
friends<BR><BR>Those of you who attended the 1999 APWSL Council Meeting in
Colombo Sri<BR>Lanka will remember Dion Martin from APWSL Aotearoa/New
Zealand.<BR><BR>Dion is an organiser with the National Distribution Union in
Palmerston<BR>North (a city 150kms north of the capital Wellington).<BR><BR>One
of the union sites which Dion organises has been involved in a
major<BR>industrial dispute for two weeks.<BR><BR>The Australian owned
Progressive Enterprises owns three warehouses in New<BR>Zealand (in Auckland,
Palmerston North and Christchurch) to supply its<BR>supermarkets throughout New
Zealand. The company had previously broken up<BR>the single collective agreement
which covered three warehouses in the three<BR>cities.<BR><BR>Two weeks ago 600
workers at the company's three supermarket warehouses went<BR>on strike for two
days to fight to return to one Collective Employment<BR>Agreement for the three
warehouses.</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>The company
wants to keep three seperate agreements.<BR><BR>After the two day strike, the
company responded by locking the workers out<BR>until they drop their demand to
negotiate one collective agreement for the<BR>three sites. The workers
have now been locked out for twelve days.<BR><BR>The support for these workers
is growing across the country and now also from unions in Australia. Many
unions<BR>are making donations, and giving support at the picket
lines.<BR><BR>Although some workers have returned to work at one site, most of
the workers at that site at<BR>are standing strong. The two other sites
remain<BR><BR>You can email Dion and the workers at </FONT><A
href="mailto:dmartin@nduunion.org.nz"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3>dmartin@nduunion.org.nz</FONT></A><BR><BR><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3>Or you can text Dion at 64 21 776 029.<BR><BR><BR><BR>John
Maynard<BR>APWSL Aoteaoa/New Zealand</FONT><BR></DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>