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In Book Takes, authors share three things that readers will gain from their books as well as giving an insight into what they learnt during the researching and writing. This weekend, Lyndy McIntyre talks about her book Power to Win: The Living Wage Movement in Aotearoa New Zealand.
After 40 years in the trade union movement, and years spent working in jobs as varied as a newspaper compositor, parliamentary press secretary and an elected district councillor, Lyndy McIntyre figured she knew a fair bit about workers and wage campaigns.
So, when she was asked to document the story of the Living Wage Movement – the campaign to lift the wages of some of our workforce’s most disadvantaged people – she didn’t hesitate. But, as McIntyre explains, there was more to it than she ever imagined.
In Book Takes, she shares three things readers will gain from reading Power to Win, as well as what she’s learned through researching and writing it.
It’s not just a union campaign
Unions don’t have a monopoly in caring about poverty wages. There are many in groups across civil society who care deeply and want to take a stand to end unliveable wages in Aotearoa. These groups have united around the goal of winning the Living Wage.
It all began with one union’s mission to win back the power to achieve decent wages for its members after the passage of the Employment Contracts Act in 1991, but it snowballed into a broad community movement. In the movement, faith groups, community organisations and unions work in partnership. These groups represent thousands of New Zealanders in organisations as diverse as Catholic social justice groups, the Māori Women’s Welfare League, students’ associations and refugee advocacy organisations. The diversity of the Living Wage Movement is the strength of the movement and the secret of the success of the many campaigns.
We talk about wages differently
The Living Wage Movement has changed the way we talk about wages in Aotearoa. Twelve years ago, nobody talked about the Living Wage. Now, it is part of our lexicon. Since the movement launched in 2012, we have changed from talking about what is the lowest an employer can legally pay to what a worker and their family need to live in dignity and participate in society.
The working poor
Having a full-time job in Aotearoa New Zealand does not guarantee economic security or a decent life. Many thousands of workers are part of the working poor. The reality of low wages is all-night cleaning jobs, partners who swap the baby between their day and night shifts, long hours, cold houses and piles of unpaid bills.
What I learned writing Power to Win:
I’ve faced many challenges in my work life, but during the past four years I learnt that it is a major undertaking to write a book, and writing the history of a social movement takes over your life.
The research, the interviews, the editing, searching for images that capture the story all takes time. It also depends on the support of many other people. I’m grateful for the support of the team at my publisher Otago University Press, and my printer Pivotal Print, a Living Wage-accredited and 100% New Zealand-owned company.
Having been around the Living Wage Movement from its inception I thought I knew quite a bit about that, too. But in writing Power to Win I learned lots more.
Interviewing more than 40 people, uncovering the back stories of the movement’s leaders and collecting dozens of low-paid workers’ stories left me in no doubt that this is a story that needs to be told.
No wonder Rev Hiueni Nuku, a respected leader in his Tongan community and in the Living Wage Movement, had such empathy for low-paid workers. He’d stood in the foodbank queue, supporting his whānau on low-paid cleaning jobs. No wonder Rebecca Kuach and other refugee background workers have the courage to speak out after escaping their war-torn homelands and surviving life in refugee camps.
Life is tough for many New Zealanders and the workers whose stories are in Power to Win are among the toughest people I have met. Their stories are stories of struggle, of bravery and of determination to ensure a better future for their children. The people behind the Living Wage Movement inspired me to take on the writing of Power to Win and keep writing the book.
At a time when so many people feel powerless, I learned that the activists and leaders in the movement unlock real power when diverse groups unite around a common goal.
Documenting the story of the movement reminded me that people have power when we consciously stand together and campaign for social change. Power to Win is a book about power and a book about winning. The stories of the transformation of workers’ lives demonstrate that people power works.
Power to Win: The Living Wage Movement in Aotearoa New Zealand, by Lyndy McIntyre (Otago University Press, $45), is out now.
