Newstalk ZB

Newstalk ZB

A suggestion that Progressive Enterprises is winning the supermarket wars.

Its competitor Foodstuffs, will make more than 100 employees from their lower North Island bases redundant resulting in cost savings of more than $4 million.

National Distribution Union general secretary Robert Reid says Progressive isn't having the same problems post the recession.

"We are also the union in Progressive and all we see at the moment in that company is expansion of their operations right throughout New Zealand," he told Newstalk ZB.

Robert Reid says the supermarket wars are quite brutally fought between the two main chains. None of the NDU's members are affected in the recent Foodstuffs layoffs.

Foodstuffs Wellington region CEO Craig Wilson says the redundancies will give the company more head room to compete even more vigorously. He says it's been a hard slog for its co-op members who own their stores, so it had to review internal costs.

Mr Wilson says the market has been very slow recovering from the recent downturn.

Foodstuffs owns Pak 'n' Save, New World and Four Square, while Progressive Enterprises owns the Foodtown, Countdown and Woolworths chains.

Hundreds of jobs are feared to be at risk in the wood processing industry.

Statistics
New Zealand's manufacturing survey shows a 3.3 percent increase in the
volume of manufacturing sales in the December quarter. But bucking that
trend is a 4.2 percent drop in volume of sales in the wood and paper
products industry.

Output was also down in the previous two quarters.

The
National Distribution Union says while exporters of raw logs are making
money, value-added wood processors are being put out of business. The
union says more than a thousand jobs have been lost since 2008, and
it's worried more could go.

Newstalk ZB: 2/11/2010 13:28:00

Unions says the latest figures on wages are confirmation of why people are flocking to Australia.

Latest figures from Statistics New Zealand show private wages rose 1.6-percent over the past year, with a 1.3-percent rise in public wages.

Robert Reid from the National Distribution Union says it only just keeps up with the rate of inflation.

He says it's high time the Government made a commitment to catching up with our trans-Tasman counterparts.

Mr Reid says the situation is worsened by the GST rise.

More changes to industrial relations and the Employment Relations Act appear to be on the Government's agenda.

Minister of Labour Kate Wilkinson says the Government has to be open to suggestions when it comes to potential law changes.

She believes legislative framework is needed with enough flexibility to allow businesses to survive the current economic conditions but which still treats employees fairly. Ms Wilkinson says there are plans to make changes concerning union access to workplaces and to restore workers' rights to enter collective agreements without having to belong to a union.

She also wants to look at the Employment Relations Authority and the Employment Court to streamline processes.