Unions play vital role that mustn't be wrecked

Mark Dawson, Editor of Wanganui Chronicle

This week we marked Labour Day, celebrating the right to work only 40 hours a week.

Then, on Thursday, the Government passed its new Employment Relations Amendment bill which brings flexibility to rests and tea breaks in the workplace and loosens the shackles of collective bargaining for employers.

So, on one hand a victory for the working man or woman; and on the other, some lost ground.

NZ's Council of Trade Unions called the new bill a "shameful attack on all workers". Minister Michael Woodhouse said it would improve the employment relations framework "creating a fair and more flexible system". So far, so predictable.

Prime Minister John Key was probably right when he said it would make no difference to the vast majority of Kiwi workers.

But there is a bigger picture here.

The bill will weaken the trade unions who, of course, generally support Labour. So for National there is a party political advantage that should play no part in government legislation.

And there is the more significant question of protection for workers.

While a mutually-beneficial relationship exists between employer and employee in most New Zealand businesses, there are national and international corporations for whom workers' rights in terms of pay and conditions are a financial burden that must be reduced to the absolute minimum the law will permit (and maybe then squeezed a little bit more).

Their staff are not people, but a unit of cost and their responsibility is not to look after their workforce but to maximise the financial return to shareholders and other investors - not to mention to ensure the executives retain their fat salaries.

Some of these organisations have notoriously exploited the cheap labour market in Third World countries where no union protection exists. And New Zealand is not immune (think the fast-food industry and seasonal migrant workers) from this guiding mantra of taking as much as possible and paying as little as possible. That is what corporate bosses are paid to do.

It was interesting last year when a clutch of Australian journalists were made redundant, and their jobs outsourced to New Zealand as the wage bill would be a lot less. Nice to get more jobs here, I guess, but the thought of this country as a source of cheap labour sends a little shiver down this journo's spine.

The pay rates, holidays, maternity leave and numerous other conditions enjoyed by most workers are largely down to one thing - the past efforts of organised and unionised labour.

People's rights are often slowly eroded, bit by bit - privacy comes to mind in the wake of the GCSB spying saga - and a vigilant watchdog is often needed to defend them.

So the unions have a crucial role to play - they are a vital balance in our capitalist society and important part of the democratic process.