{"id":646565,"date":"2026-10-31T04:36:20","date_gmt":"2026-10-31T04:36:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/646565\/"},"modified":"2026-10-31T04:36:20","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T04:36:20","slug":"300-ikea-staff-to-ramp-up-industrial-action-with-24-hour-strike-on-sunday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/646565\/","title":{"rendered":"300 Ikea staff to ramp up industrial action with 24-hour strike on Sunday"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"VFgYVkWVN\" style=\"display:none\">This time around, striking workers plan to host a barbecue and perform a haka at 2pm outside the store, with a staff picket running from 1pm to 4pm.<\/p>\n<p class=\"VFgYVkWVN\" style=\"display:none\">Ikea has been approached for comment. <\/p>\n<p><img  alt=\"Ikea workers on the picket line in Auckland last Saturday, October 24. Photo \/ Workers First Union\" class=\"article-media__image responsively-lazy\" data-test-ui=\"article-media__image\"\/>Ikea workers on the picket line in Auckland last Saturday, October 24. Photo \/ Workers First Union<\/p>\n<p class=\"VFgYVkWVN\" style=\"display:none\">Union national organiser Jas Giri said weekend pay rates were a minimum expectation in Ikea\u2019s Australian stores.<\/p>\n<p class=\"VFgYVkWVN\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cIt\u2019s simply unfair for Ikea to deny workers weekend rates and treat Aotearoa like a second-class country where locals don\u2019t deserve the basics because we have weak labour laws.<\/p>\n<p class=\"VFgYVkWVN\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cIkea sell themselves as a progressive company, but there\u2019s been nothing progressive about their approach to their first major bargaining sessions with New Zealanders.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"VFgYVkWVN\" style=\"display:none\">Employee and union bargaining member Sally Huang, who is set to leave her job in frustration, said during negotiations that four people had resigned since bargaining meetings began.<\/p>\n<p class=\"VFgYVkWVN\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cThat\u2019s including myself and the HFRD [Home Furnishing Retail and Design] manager. When we opened, we had over 500 employees, now we\u2019re down to roughly 400,\u201d she wrote to the company during negotiations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"VFgYVkWVN\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cThe way I see it, Ikea is a sinking ship with its crew members getting off faster than you can replace them. We are in dire straits. And the only way to fix this is by providing a better work environment, starting with fair pay.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img  alt=\"Ikea employee and union bargaining member Sally Huang says she is leaving her role at the company in frustration. Photo \/ Workers First Union\" class=\"article-media__image responsively-lazy\" data-test-ui=\"article-media__image\"\/>Ikea employee and union bargaining member Sally Huang says she is leaving her role at the company in frustration. Photo \/ Workers First Union<\/p>\n<p class=\"VFgYVkWVN\" style=\"display:none\">Last week an Ikea spokesperson said they valued the \u201cimportant contribution\u201d workers made to the company.<\/p>\n<p class=\"VFgYVkWVN\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cEmployment conditions at Ikea are developed to reflect local market conditions, legislation and industry frameworks in each of the 32 countries where we operate.<\/p>\n<p class=\"VFgYVkWVN\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cWhile there may be similarities across Ikea markets, employment arrangements vary between countries to meet local needs and circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"VFgYVkWVN\" style=\"display:none\">Union deputy secretary Rudd Hughes earlier told the Herald members rejected a pay offer below the rate of inflation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"VFgYVkWVN\" style=\"display:none\">Hughes said other similar retail companies like Costco and H&amp;M offer weekend penal rates \u2013 a higher hourly wage as compensation for working on Saturdays and Sundays \u2013 to employees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This time around, striking workers plan to host a barbecue and perform a haka at 2pm outside the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":646566,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[19839,52404,432,51,1887,5972,4484,24176,668,1404,111,43,139,69,90,2847,660,27217,1516,2735,4485,10809,61,701,810,4770,102],"class_list":["post-646565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-24hour","tag-52404","tag-action","tag-auckland","tag-countrys","tag-day","tag-employees","tag-hundreds","tag-ikea","tag-industrial","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-only","tag-planning","tag-ramp","tag-staff","tag-store","tag-strike","tag-sunday","tag-to","tag-tomorrow","tag-up","tag-walking","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=646565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/646566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=646565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=646565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=646565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}