Pacific Workers: The Heart of the Movement

Speech by CTU president Ross Wilson to the Komiti Pasefika Biennial Fono, Wellington, 28th July 2005

Kia ora, Talofa lava, Kia orana, Malo e lelei. Welcome to the CTU Komiti Pasefika Biennial Fono. It is tremendously encouraging for me, as the CTU President, that this fono is so well attended. And this also reflects the very active programme of work over the past two years with some great achievements including the radio project, pasefika leaflets, the Western Springs Pacifica Festival and a very visible participation in CTU activities. I know that that is in large part due to the strong leadership which is provided by Efu and Meaole and Cheryl, and by other emerging leaders as well.

Because, more than anything, unions and the CTU are about helping you to provide leadership. And I love the theme for your fono: Pasefika Passion-Leadership in Unions". You are the heart of our movement. You are the workplace leaders, and other members look to you for guidance on issues. Or role is to help you to be effective and credible, by providing you with accurate information, training and workshopping opportunities. By working together we can be stronger and more effective. The 35 unions affiliated to the CTU together represent more than 300,000 union members. That makes us the largest democratic organisation in New Zealand. We have an important role to play at workplace, industry and national political level.

 This Fono provides and opportunity for you to debate and forward your particular concerns and ideas for Pacific workers to the CTU Biennial Conference in October. And to influence our CTU work programme for the next two years. I know you will make the most of the fono and work hard, and have a great time as well. I have been asked to speak on health and safety, and of course there is nothing more important than health and safety protection at work. We all want to, and expect, to come home again from work every day and it is a vital part of or work as unions to make sure that you do. Our role was very much strengthened by the improvements to the Health & Safety in Employment Act passed by the Labour Progressive Government in 2002, with the support of the Green Party. Most importantly it gave workers the right to elect Health and Safety Representatives in your workplace with the very important role of participating in the processes to identify hazards and improve health and safety.

Those elected HS Reps have the right to two days paid training leave each year and the CTU, in partnership with ACC, has developed training courses which are delivered to HS Reps in all parts of New Zealand. The CTU is now the largest health and safety training provider in New Zealand, and widely acknowledged as the best as well. More than 13,000 HS Reps have been through the Stage 1 Course and many have also completed the Stage 2 course in the second year. A Stage 3 course is in development right now. And an important focus of the course is providing leadership in organising around health and safety issues. And over the two years that the HS Reps have been in operation they have made a huge difference. During that two year period to June this year the workplace fatality rate has dropped by 60%, from 73 to 48 deaths. Now 48 is still too many. One death is too many. But I think we can be proud that our HS Reps have made a real contribution by reducing the number of workplace deaths by 60%. Now that is an excellent example of union work led by workplace leaders like yourselves. It is also an excellent example of worker participation. We want you to have more opportunities to participate and have a real say in your workplace. Overseas research shows that where workers ideas and innovation are valued and respected, workplace relationships and productivity improve. So we are developing, together with Government and Business NZ, projects which will develop that idea and build worker participation. I think you already know that I take great pride in the work we do together as unions. It is the essence of democratic society that working people, like yourselves, come together in unions to work for the common purpose of a better workplace and world; not just for ourselves, but for our children and grandchildren. Unions have an important role to play in a democracy. When union rights are threatened, as they were in New Zealand during the 90s, democracy itself is threatened. And it includes working together at a political level because many of the things we have to achieve can only be won at Government level. So we do that as our democratic right and we can take great pride in the fact that the CTU, with our 300,000 members, is the largest democratic organization in New Zealand. And we can also take pride in what we have achieved as a union movement throughout our history.

Delegates I don't get angry very often, but I do when our critics denigrate unions, lie about our work, and contribute to the prejudice about unions which has been encouraged by some sections of the media over many years. We have to take every opportunity to remind people, modestly, of our achievements, historically and currently. Most fundamentally of course it was unions who founded the Labour Party, and they were unionists who led the first Labour Government; a government which transformed New Zealand economically and socially. That is something that our parents remember well, but which our generation, and younger people, frequently take for granted. And it was unions who provided the core support to rebuild the Labour party during the 1990s. Yes, the CTU did play a crucial role in supporting Helen Clark's leadership bid after the 1993 General Election.

And yes, we did work closely with her, and other Labour MPs and Presidents, during the dark days of that decade to rebuild credible policy, and to rebuild the support and trust of working people. It is also important that we don't forget that it was the National- led Governments of the 1990s which:

- Made cuts to wages and conditions with the Employment Contracts Act ? Froze the minimum wage ? Slashed welfare benefits

- Cut public services and the public sector ? Attacked public education ? Axed the apprenticeship system 

- Privatised ACC and cut entitlements

And it was the union movement, working with the Labour Party and the Alliance, who fought those changes and succeeded with our campaign against Max Bradford's Holidays Act cuts in 1998. You will know that the CTU has had a major influence in working with Labour, with the support of the Greens, the Progressive Coalition and the Alliance, to put in place protections for working people and rebuild New Zealand economically and socially.

Obviously, Governments must be given due credit for measures they legislate but nobody in Government would dispute that it has been the union movement, led by the CTU, which has spearheaded the work for:

- Fairer employment laws ? A fairer Holidays Act including 4 weeks annual leave (from April 2007) and penal rates for public holiday work ? Annual minimum wage increases (up 35.7% since 1999)

- The Modern Apprenticeship Scheme ? Stronger workplace health and safety laws ? An improved public fund ACC scheme 

- Paid parental leave

- Income tested rents

- Working for Families assistance

We have had a very successful partnership with the Labour-led Governments over the past 6 years and, working together, we have delivered a lot for union members and working families. When we recall the gloom and doom predicted by business organizations and opposition parties about every Government measure from the ERA to health and safety laws, it is particularly satisfying that we have:

- The strongest economic growth of any OECD country

- The lowest unemployment in 19 years

- A marked increase in fulltime jobs and participation of women in the workforce

- A much fairer employment law framework

-  and workplace policies including paid parental leave.

-  Strong investment in training and economic and social development strategies

An ACC which is once again back among the best compensation schemes in the world Our future lies in building a high value, high skill economy which recognises the value of skills and knowledge and treats labour as a valuable asset. There is a growing recognition among employers that:

- There has to be an investment in skill development and lifelong learning

-  That it is necessary to lift the level of wages and salaries to attract and retain skilled workers. 

-  The quality of workplaces and workplace relationships must be improved in order to increase productivity levels.

-  We have best practice in some enterprises and that we need to work together at an industry level to transfer that best practice.

At the CTU we have had the debate over the past few years and we have claimed the right to social partnership with Government, and business; Now is the time, when we have good economic growth and relatively full employment, to make the investment in skill development, to work on improving workplace performance and organization, to improve workforce participation, and to create decent jobs. We want that partnership to continue. And we now face a General Election in a few weeks, at which the National Party will be tempting workers with tax cuts. We know that tax cuts have historically meant cuts in public services; that was our experience of the National Governments of the 1990s. We want to continue to rebuild our health, education and other public services; not return to the slash and burn approach of the 1990s. We want real wage increases. Our 5% wage campaign delivers $41.12 gross ($27 nett) on the average wage. And who has been bitterly and hysterically opposing our 5% wage campaign? Yes the National Party?.Brash, Key and Mapp. And who froze the minimum wage for 3 years when they were last in Government? Yes the National Party. And we also know that any minor benefits from tax cuts will be quickly offset not only by cuts to our social wage through the cuts in public services but also directly to our salaries and wages. The National Party has already announced its industrial relations policies. It's policy is nothing less than a declaration of war on unions and the gains we have made for workers under the Labour led Governments of the past 6 years. For a start National has explicitly committed to axing the Employment Relations Act and restoring an Employment Contracts Act.

And lets just look for a moment at what the National Party is complaining about:

- Employers are forced to negotiate with unions

- Employers cannot object to negotiation, simply because they are ideologically opposed to unions and collective bargaining

- The Employment Authority can settle the employment conditions in bargaining in extreme cases where there has been serious and sustained bad faith behaviour. 

-  Bargaining fees can be levied against free-loaders if a majority of workers agree, and can only be avoided if the employee says "no" in writing."

- Vulnerable workers have security of employment and conditions on sale or transfer of their work.

Yes, those are all important gains which the 2004 ERA amendments delivered for us, among many others. All that will go. National is absolutely clear on this. They will repeal each and every provision of the 2004 amendments. In addition they have confirmed they will scrap: - The union right of access to workplaces.

- Union meetings. Hold them outside work time they say. 

- Right to deduction of union fees 

- trade union education leave

- Union right to negotiate collective agreements

-bargaining agents will be back.

- The right to personal grievance during the first 90 days?.150,000 workers each year. And they won't stop there. The Howard Government has given them some new ideas, so look across the Tasman to see what will be next. And that's not all. They also intend to gut the Holidays Act:

- Four weeks annual leave will be axed

- Rate and a half for work on public holidays will be axed

- Payment for public holidays, sick days and bereavement leave will not include overtime and productivity bonuses. In the health and safety area National has confirmed they will:

- strip the 15,000+ workplace health and safety representatives of their important role in workplace health and safety.

- Remove workplace stress as a specific ground for OSH action.

- Review the HSE Act and privatise ACC.

And as they do so, lets just reflect on the price we will pay if New Zealanders are drawn into seeing the issue for this years election as a tax cut. We all have a very important responsibility in providing information, and leadership, to our union members. It is not our role to tell our members how to vote, but it is certainly our responsibility to tell them what to expect if a Brash Government is elected. And the message is: expect the worst you can imagine. So enjoy your Fono. We have a lot of work to do over the next few weeks to ensure that our members have the facts about what is really at stake for working people in this election.