REUNION

I'm sure that younger workers know very little about unions and their importance in society.
Many older workers most likely recall the bad days of unionism and disruptions caused by indiscriminate strikes and activity.

Unions in New Zealand started a decline with the Labour Relations Act 1987 which ended compulsory arbitration even though compulsory union membership was left intact. The CTU was in negotiation with government for clarification of the role of unions in New Zealand when, in 1990 the Labour government was trounced by National.

One of the new National governments first attacks on the people was the introduction of the Employment Contracts Act 1991. This basically deregulated labour markets and set up individual employment contracts instead of collective agreements. It also abolished compulsory unionism.

This is why we see unscrupulous employers  today paying workers peanuts and forcing them into onerous agreements like the Little Saigon restaurant case in Christchurch.

The unions collapsed in the early 1990's, even though New Zealand had one of the highest rates of union membership in the world because of the repercussions of the Employment Contracts Act 1991but also because of other govenmental initiatives like privatisation of government departments. The 'blue collar' unions that controlled railways and post and telegraph took a major body blow when these were privatised and the only strong unions which remained were largely in the  'white collar' sectors. These of course weren't the muscular unions of the past (watersiders, seamen, freezing workers, engineering etc.) and any collectivism that was allowed under new regulations was a bit wimpy.



Unionism in New Zealand began in the second half of the nineteenth century. Initially beginning as
small, local arrangements where workers had scrapes with employers and had to band together to get some form of agreement. As towns grew, businesses and work sectors also grew requiring skilled labour. The new skilled staff worked together and formed trade unions which eventually connected with 'brother' workers in other towns and even across industries.
The rise of this was eventually recognised in 1878 when Parliament gave unions a legal status.
From there unions grew organically and were reinforced by the influx of workers from Australia and the United Kingdom which were strongly advanced in unionism.

We all know of the battles that took place between unions, employers and government over the years.

(Look it up on the internet - this isn't a history lesson you know).


There were many injustices that only got resolved through bloodshed, sanctions, enforced poverty or, in some cases, arbitration.

Some have gone down into folk-lore like the 1951 Waterfront Dispute which has been musically chronicled by Chris Prowse. Chris's father and older brother Richard were actually working in related industries at this time and were strong union supporters. - Correction: Mr Prowse Senior was not a strong union supporter and son Richard was actually not born until 1952. He just looks older. Apologies from the author. The researcher, who may have been drunk at the time on Te Mata Chardonnay 2013 has been sacked.


Now , as alluded to before not all union activity was righteous. There was a groundswell of dissatisfaction from the public when union activity seemed frivolous, 'bolshi' or was deliberately set out to inconvenience as many people as possible. This to me was personified by the Maritime Union's various disputes in the 1970's. They and the associated Cooks and Stewards Union seemed to be forever niggling at their employers and would strike or go slow at key times (Christmas, Easter) etc. that would cause most disruption. I was working at the liquor wholesalers at this time and when the Cook Strait ferry workers went on strike because they felt they weren't getting a fair do with their morning teas (chocolate biscuits had been cut out and they only had the cheaper plain biscuits to eat) I and friends taped a couple of packets of chocolate biscuits to the top of the cartons of beer we delivered to their union. It caused a bit of a stink but the company didn't lose the supply contract.

On a national level things came to a head when in 1981 there were marches down main streets of New Zealand that were anti-union, anti-striking. It was organised by Tania Harris and, while not really well thought out and with some pretty naive political ideology it tapped into the general dissatisfaction of the public. The union management was really to blame in allowing the annoying activity by their members to cause this and it led over the next ten years to the passing of legislature that basically emasculated them.

So, where are we now. Through successive right-leaning Labour governments and even righter leaning National governments hell-bent on making New Zealand competitive on a global market (don't they realise how small we are and we can't really compete with the bigger countries - we should concentrate instead on looking after the New Zealand people in the way that Scandanavian countries do) unions and awareness of unions has been eroded.
Even Helen Clark's great Labour governments of 1999, 2002 and 2005 failed to halt the decline. New legislation did allow unions to build up membership again and the Employment Relations Act 2000 restored the term ‘union’ and specified that only unions registered under the act could represent employees in collective bargaining but there was no where near the power that unionism and the great unions wielded before.

In 2014 we have a New Zealand whose wealth has been captured by a minority of privileged people and by foreign investment. Shonkeys governments have stripped out assets in the tradition of Brierleys and other corporate raiding companies. State assets and corporations have been sold off and steadily measures have been put in place to make the rich richer and the poor poorer.
This new and bastard National government proved what they want to do when the first bit of legislation that they've passed after the election was to eliminate tea breaks for workers.

So no wonder we have employers merrily going about paying peanuts to workers by using minimum rates and 3 month 'trial' employment contracts,. No wonder we hear of 'slave labour' in restaurants and small manufacturing businesses. No wonder that supermarkets and fast food chains use young workers because they can get away with paying less. No wonder that petrol station chains dock workers pay for drive-offs. Basically we've got what we deserve.

But, maybe the worm is turning albeit slowly.

Is it significant that Labour's new leader, Andrew Little is a strong union man elected by a strong union vote?

I sincerely hope so. Tally ho!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6wBcwj59F4