The 240 crew employed by Air NZ subsidiary Zeal walked off the job today for four days after months of fruitless negotiations over pay parity with staff employed directly by the airline.
Zeal flies short-haul trans-Tasman and Pacific routes. The Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union, which represents the workers, took out large ads in national newspapers today under the heading "Air New Zealand Are Ripping Us Off".
The ads claimed the striking crew were standing up to an "injustice".
"That corporate trick means Air NZ thinks it can treat them differently and pay them thousands of dollars less than other staff who do exactly the same job," the ad reads.
The union said Zeal staff were paid up to $30,00 a year less than their Air NZ colleagues, a figure the airline has rejected.
Air NZ said the union was making comparisons with long-haul cabin crew who earned a similar base salary but had higher allowances paid in foreign currency while they were on international stopovers.
"It simply costs more to buy a meal in Tokyo than it does in Auckland," the airline said.
It has responded to the strike by locking out Zeal staff and bringing in management to push the trolleys on board affected flights.
About 100 staff were trained to act as alternative crew, including chief executive Rob Fyfe and other senior management, said airline group general manager of short haul airlines, Bruce Parton.
"I think it will good for managers to go out there and see how hard these workers actually work," union spokesman Strachan Crang said.
"They'll see how hard the job is and hopefully change their minds about what the job really entails."
An EPMU spokesman yesterday said the union had offered the airline a settlement last Friday, after mediation failed on Thursday. He was unable to give details of what it entailed, but said the union was trying to meet Air NZ halfway.
Workers were picketing the airline's Auckland head office today.
