Chlöe Swarbrick: Unions show that we win together

It took a year and a half to achieve, but the Professional Firefighters Union has just ratified a 20-24 per cent pay increase, cancer screening and psychological support. Photo / Alex Burton

OPINION:

When you don’t know your neighbours or your co-workers to any depth and you have a problem, you’re not inclined to talk about it. You internalise and individualise it. It’s your problem. It’s therefore a problem with you.

Without strong communities, without mainstream recognition of the power of collective action, we don’t hear each other’s voices and don’t put our finger on systemic issues that we need each other to help solve.

I spoke those words nearly six years ago with my “maiden” speech in Parliament. They were then the observations of a disillusioned 20-something, later evidentially substantiated by the findings of He Ara Oranga, the Government’s commissioned Mental Health & Addiction Inquiry.

Our mental health is inherently interdependent on others and our environment; to be mentally well, we all need the material basics, a place to belong and a sense of identity.

These are supposed to be fundamental tenets of the social contract — or, why we form communities, neighbourhoods and countries.

We recognise that we can achieve bigger and better things by finding common cause and working together for peace and prosperity.

Despite all of the challenges of this year, I will remember 2022 as the year workers across the country organised and won well-overdue gains.

This week, AUT’s Tertiary Education Union members won the rescinding of redundancy notices incorrectly issued to as many as 80 academic staff.

After a year and a half, the Professional Firefighters Union this past Sunday ratified a 20-24 per cent pay increase, cancer screening and psychological support.

Unite Union fought for and won 8-16 per cent pay rises for SkyCity gaming workers.

In October, First Union won an historical case for Uber drivers to unionise, be paid at least minimum wage for all hours worked, holiday pay, sick leave and KiwiSaver contributions.

In June, PSA organised and won Allied Health workers an initial pay increase of 5-17 per cent, lifting all of their workers to at least living wage for the first time.

This non-exhaustive list of successes in solidarity can serve as a reminder that the last time our country faced the coalescing of global pandemic, wars and massive economic upheaval, the then-government passed the Social Security Act 1938, promising at least a minimum standard of living for all.

Governments of both stripes kept these principles in place for almost half a century, until the 1980s.

It’s easy to forget, especially for those of us raised without Aotearoa New Zealand’s history in our school curriculum, that we were not too long ago a country with a far higher baseline material quality of living and well-funded public services.

We paid for it with far higher top marginal and corporate taxes.

Meanwhile, in 2022, Treasury and IRD data indicates that the most wealthy New Zealanders pay a lower effective tax rate than the essential workers who got us through Covid-19.

As a result of the over-reliance on “unconventional” monetary policy throughout the pandemic, economist Bernard Hickey estimates we’ve seen a $1 trillion transfer in wealth to the wealthiest New Zealanders.

None of this stuff is natural. It is the consequences of political decisions.

We could spend a lot of time angry about National’s reheating of trickle-down economics or Labour’s lukewarm playbook, or we could spend next year organising for the kinds of values we want to see prioritised and invested in.

If the unions have shown us anything this year, it’s that immense power lies in solidarity, collective action: in our communities.

Chlöe Swarbrick, Green Party, is the MP for Auckland Central.