A dispute over pay parity for some Air New Zealand cabin staff escalated today, with the union representing them announcing strike action.
Attendants working for Air New Zealand subsidiary Zeal would launch a four-day strike from May 7 , Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) national secretary Andrew Little said.
The strike would involve 240 flight attendants and affect all Trans-Tasman and Pacific flights serviced by Air New Zealand's Airbus A320 fleet.
"The decision to strike was not taken lightly by our members but they have been negotiating for seven months and the company is still offering them terms and conditions that are tens of thousands of dollars less than crew employed directly by Air New Zealand," Mr Little said.
The only people employed by Zeal were the attendants, and the sole purpose of the company was to exclude them from the terms and conditions crew working directly for the parent company had, he said.
"It's an unethical use of corporate legal structures to deprive these workers of decent conditions and the flight crew are quite rightly taking this action in an attempt to level the playing field," Mr Little said.
"This is a matter of basic fairness. We'll continue to negotiate with the company in good faith until we get an agreement."
However, Air New Zealand said it had a number of staff ready to operate as cabin crew if the strike went ahead.
Air New Zealand Group general manager of short haul airlines Bruce Parton said they had repeatedly told the EPMU they would negotiate, but had heard nothing from Mr Little.
"Air New Zealand is quickly running out of patience with a union that clearly doesn't want to make progress and is happy to see its members lose further income while they are on strike," Mr Parton said.
"With the EPMU's idea of negotiating simply being unwilling to move on key points, Air New Zealand is quickly being driven towards finding other means of crewing its A320 fleet in the future."
Earlier this month, flight attendants called off strike action planned for Easter after a legal challenge by Air New Zealand.
However, crews have continued their protest by refusing to comply with the airline's uniform policy or to carry out stand-by duties.
