2006 Progressive Enterprises Dispute - On The Picket Lines

On The Picket Lines

Progressive Enterprises workers, along with supporters, kept up continuous around-the-clock pickets at the distribution centres, as well as going out on "flying pickets" targeting the temporary distribution points set up by the company at supermarkets and distribution firms where people are handling goods that would normally be handled at the distribution centers. at the Palmerston North distribution centre. A permanent presence was set up at the site, with tents, a power generator, fridge, barbecue and portaloo. A representative from the Postal Workers Union added a letterbox to the campsite, saying that postal workers would deliver messages of solidarity sent directly to the picketers. Numerous arrests were made during the dispute, on 28 August union negotiator Stan Renwick was arrested, in Lower Hutt three picketers who were not employed by Progressive Enterprises were arrested at a Countdown supermarket after a stand off with a truck driver. During the third week of the dispute ten people were arrested on the picket line in Auckland after truck tires were punctured during a clash between picketers and a moving truck, National Distribution Union organiser Ingrid Beckers, who was one of the people arrested, told the New Zealand Herald that the truck had driven dangerously through the picket line and that the driver unwound his window and swung a metal pole around. According to Senior Sergeant Cornell Kluessien "Some were charged with disorderly behaviour, some with obstructing police and some with obstructing a roadway."