Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union national secretary Andrew Little. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union national secretary Andrew Little. Photo / Mark Mitchell
KEY POINTS:
Two union chiefs have given notice of separate "name and shame" tactics they plan to use against employers.
Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union national secretary Andrew Little and Council of Trade Unions president Helen Kelly spelled out their respective plans to the Labour Party congress in Wellington atthe weekend.
Speaking in a workshop, Mr Little said an experience at Easter on his way to Labour and union celebrations in Blackball had inspired a campaign he hoped to organise in the run-up to Labour Weekend.
He and a car full of unionists had stopped at a cafe in Springfield for coffee on the drive to the West Coast. They had ordered their coffees and sat down when they saw a note on the menu board saying: "Kitchen closed due to Labour Government."
When they asked the owner about it, he said he was not prepared to pay the required time and a half to someone working a public holiday plus pay again for the day off they had to be given.
That prompted the unionistsduring the rest of their drive to devise a "spot the miserable bastard weekend" singling out similar employers they will publicise in the run-up to Labour Weekend.
Mr Little said he wanted to involve other unions covering the hospitality and retail sectors: the Service and Food Workers Union, Unite and the National Distribution Union.
"We will just ask people to dob in those businesses that are so miserable that they either charge a surcharge or they make a big fuss about the fact that they have to treat people on a day that is a community day, a family day for everybody else."
Helen Kelly, in her speech to the full conference, said she was at the point of naming large employers who privately told her they supported the Employment Relations Act but would not say so in public.
"If I go into another discussion with a major employer in this country and they tell me they are happy with the Employment Relations Act but are not prepared to speak out, then we will start naming those employers ourselves."
