KEY POINTS:
The union movement is gearing up for a major push to get more people to vote in next year's election, a move which is likely to help Labour's efforts to return to power.
At its conference yesterday in Wellington, the Council of Trade Unions unveiled a political strategy which focused heavily on workers' rights, public services and higher wages.
New CTU president Helen Kelly said the union campaign around next year's election would be more centralised than before, with an emphasis on getting members to talk about politics and then convince others to get involved as well.
An audit is under way to assess the campaigning resources of each union, and is also looking at the future use of outbound calling facilities.
While the CTU is not affiliated to any political party, Ms Kelly's speech made it clear that the organisation's views are not in line with the National Party's.
"Our message provides a vision of a fair society where amongst other things work pays, social services like health and education are available to all regardless of income, and New Zealand is a peaceful society where all are treated with respect and are treated equally," Ms Kelly said.
"This is the vision held by most New Zealanders for this country and is inconsistent with the vision we have been hearing recently from the National Party."
Asked if the CTU planned to campaign overtly for Labour, Ms Kelly said the plan was to campaign on the three core issues in the CTU strategy, and to point out which political party best fitted that vision.
"There could be a number of political parties that support our political issues," she said.
"We'll be giving people analysis and, as issues come out, we'll be pointing out what the implications of those are."
The union movement played a major role in Labour's success in the 2005 election when it mobilised to get a large number of people out to vote in South Auckland.
Ms Kelly vowed the same thing would happen again, noting that "we tipped the balance in deciding the election outcome".
Asked if the CTU would be able to conduct the campaign it wanted to under the provisions of the controversial Electoral Finance Bill - which places restrictions on campaigning by so-called third parties - CTU secretary Carol Beaumont said it would be possible.
"This will be about talking to our members, which we'll be entirely able to do," she said.
Among the things the CTU will push for ahead of the next election are an increase in the minimum wage to $15 an hour.
It also seeks changes to the Employment Relations Act to help to encourage multi-employer and industry bargaining.
National's deputy leader, Bill English, said the CTU would have to be careful that any materials distributed to members did not get caught under provisions of the Electoral Finance Bill.
He said union members would make up their own minds about whether National offered something they wanted to vote for.
During visits to unionised workplaces National had found people were keen to hear what the party had to say about lower taxes, law and order and education standards.
"If they're on $40,000, they don't want to be paying 33c in the dollar and seeing it spent on things they regard as politically correct garbage."
