Ross Wilson to NZEI conference, Sept 2007

CTU president Ross Wilson
Speech notes for NZEI Conference
26th September 2007

Greetings from the CTU Officers and staff and the 39 other unions and more than 350,000 union members who make up the CTU.

This is the last NZEI Conference I will address as the CTU President, and I was thinking last night ….I suppose people expect me to say something profound.  And I didn’t feel any better when I recalled the very profound and impressive speeches delivered here on Sunday by your President Irene and by the EI President Thulus Nxesi.

I hope my comments about our broader work will in some way contribute to the important discussions you are having at this meeting.

But I would like to first of all acknowledge the outstanding work of the union over the eight years I have been President. Your work in ensuring that we have salaries and conditions which attract and retain skilled teachers, and in  addressing professional issues and helping shape our national education policies for the future, are a vital contribution to the challenge of nation building I want to focus on today. And you are all very important influencers in your own communities.

The paper to this conference “Quality Public Early Childhood Education: A Vision for 2020” is an example of the thoughtful and forward looking work I have come to expect from the NZEI-te riu roa.

I would also like to acknowledge and pay tribute to the Presidents and officials I have worked with. We have always had an excellent relationship and  they have always been responsive to, and supportive of, our CTU work.

As a movement I think we can be proud of what we have achieved together over the past seven or eight years. In many respects I came into office at a good time. Although it has been hard work, it has been mainly very positive: rebuilding unity, increasing union membership, building political and public credibility and influence, and using all of that to make gains for working New Zealanders through bargaining solidarity and campaigns, and through legislative and other processes.

It has been a great privilege and, applying my principle that it is better to leave a little early rather than stay too long, I move on with the feeling that the union movement is in pretty good shape and that there is a very able, and younger, leadership to take my place.

Next month we will celebrate the election of the first woman President in the history of the CTU and the FOL & CSU before it;  a former Assistant National Secretary  of this union: Helen Kelly.

Looking to the future there are some big challenges ahead for the union movement. There always will be of course, but I think there are some very fundamental issues we are grappling with as a movement and as a country.

The first is democracy. I have mentioned to previous AGMs that we have to publicly assert our role as  institutions of democratic society. We learnt from our bruising experience of the 1990s that an attack on the union movement is an attack on democracy.

If we are not recognized as the legitimate voice for working people –Te Kauae Kaimahi – then there is unlikely to be an effective voice for them.

I read Nicky Hager’s book “The Hollow Men” with a completely absorbing fascination (as a political junkie), but with a genuine alarm as a New Zealander.

People like Don Brash  can say what they like about Nicky (and they have tried their best to discredit him) but the evidence in the emails speaks for itself. What Nicky has done is piece it all together, and I think he has done a remarkable job. “The Hollow Men” raises important constitutional issues and it should be a worry for us that  this has not really been acknowledged in public debate.

It is no exaggeration to say that  “The Hollow Men” raises the prospect of “government by the corporates for the corporates”. What we want, and what our constitution is supposed to deliver is  “government by the people for the people”.

And it brings to mind again the quote I used last year in a different context by the international financier George Soros:

“Perhaps the greatest threat to freedom and democracy in the world today comes from the formation of unholy alliances between government and business. 

So when I present our CTU submission to the Select Committee on the Election Financing Bill on Thursday I will be signalling our support, not only for restrictions on and greater transparency of political funding donations, but also for State funding of election campaigns as many other countries do.

Why do we leave this very important part of our democratic process dependant on private fundraising and donations, when there is clearly such an obvious risk of undue influence and corruption of the political process?

Influence should come from popular support and collective representation, not from the size of political donations.  And it is totally consistent with our CTU approach that our credibility and influence should come from being the largest democratic organization in Aotearoa New Zealand.

And that that credibility and influence should extend across the whole range of economic and social development, and that is what we have worked to achieve over the past few years.

Worker and union participation in the development and implementation of the economic and social development strategies, which will directly affect all New Zealanders, and our children and grandchildren, is essential.

It is essential both because it is our democratic right and to address the risk that Soros warns us about, but also because the experience of other successful small countries has demonstrated that such participation is a core ingredient of success.

So, over the past few years, in a number of different for a and processes Business NZ and the CTU, as social partners, have been learning to work together in a way which respects our respective roles and benefits us all.

Globalisation provides new opportunities as well as big challenges and threats.

New Zealand should be a country where everyone participates in the process of developing our national strategies, and shares fairly in the benefits. We need to be socially cohesive as well as economically strong.

o That is why we need to continue to increase the investment in public education, training and skills development, and that is why your contribution is so important

o That is why the CTU has been actively engaged with Government and business in developing strategies to increase the value of the products and services we produce as a country

o That is why the CTU  actively participated in the 2005 Hui Taumata on Maori economic development and has several current projects lead by our Vice President Maori Sharon Clair and our Te Runanga o Kaimahi maori on skills and workforce development. Maori workers must be given the motivation and the opportunity to  participate in and lead our  strategies to a high skill high wage society.

o And that is why we have been campaigning as a union movement to lift wages in this country before we lose more skilled workers to higher salaries in Australia and elsewhere. There are already more skilled Kiwis working in other countries as a % than any other country in the OECD.

Bruce Jesson in his 1999 book “Only Their Purpose is Mad” said:

“Put simply, the challenge facing New Zealand is to redefine the role of the nation in the modern global economy…………nation-building is about creating a cohesive society that can act internationally with some sense of purpose.”

While much has improved in recent years with improvements in annual holidays, minimum wages, paid parental leave, health and safety and so on, the working lives of many workers are still characterised by low pay and a sense of being undervalued in workplaces that remain hierarchical and dysfunctional.

This is a long way from our vision of a modern workplace where participation in decent work is a vital part of our democracy and an essential aspect of sustainable development.

We have made good progress but there is a long way to go:

My feeling is that New Zealanders don’t want to go back to the “more market” days of the 1980s and 1990s when the disparity between rich and poor grew faster than in any OECD country. They support the more “hands on” approach of building a national strategy for a high skill, high value, high wage economy.
Looking ahead over the next few years, what can we expect?

Frankly it is not at all clear.

We have a Labour led Government which is continuing its cautious but solid.  progress with a social democratic agenda. Although it is far too early to call the polls indicate that a significant section of the voting public may be tiring of Labour despite what has been the strongest economic performance for more than 30 years.

It is said that “we” want fresh faces on our TVs. And the National Party has a fresh faced new leader with a policy of agreeing, or appearing to agree, with many of the key Labour policies which have defined the political divide.

I say “appearing to agree” advisedly because it has always been our policy at the CTU to encourage union members to look past the rhetoric and reassurances at the detail of the policies.

And if you look at the National Party policy on industrial relations and other  key work related issues like ACC, nothing much has changed:

o The policy is to weaken the ERA and, in particular to again remove the  key role of unions in collective bargaining.
o The commitment to the Mapp Bill policy of removing all legal rights during the first 3 months of a new job will remain, which means stripping more than 600,000 New Zealanders every year of their legal rights against unfair dismissal.
o The National Party has made very strong statements about cutting public expenditure and we have seen from the past what that means for education and health budgets.
o There is talk of privatization – of SOEs and ACC.
o And very importantly it is still not clear that the National Party respects the role of unions in modern democratic society.

So  in the interests of providing a fresh face for voters are we contemplating a return to the 1990s if a National led Government is elected next year?

It is not for the CTU to tell people how to exercise their vote but we have always taken a responsibility to sharpen focus on the issues, and we are already preparing for such a campaign next year.

It is for you to take stock of what has been achieved over the past eight years and whether all that is at risk with a change of Government.

We have to challenge these failed National policies from the 1990s and  persuade all political parties to support the continuation of the social democratic agenda which has public education and an investment approach at its heart.

Over and above our daily struggles we have to remember that we have a national interest to consider; the national interest of developing effective policies and strategies to provide decent work and incomes for working New Zealanders, and for our children and grandchildren.

That is a huge responsibility and  a process in which you all, in your roles as educationalists and unionists, can play a crucial role.

So I hope that the NZEI Te Riu Roa will continue to play an active role in the CTU Te Kauae Kaimahi as the new leadership takes our great movement forward. Let us make sure that we all  discharge that responsibility and fight to ensure that  our country reflects all of our aspirations, and never again lapses back into the disastrous policies we experienced in the 1990s.

And I hope you will play your part in ensuring that your families and whanau focus on the real issues as we approach the next election.

Those of you with longer memories will remember the “Decent Society” slogan which National campaigned on in 1990.

We musn’t  be conned again.