Everyone knows that getting employers to increase rates of pay and improve conditions of work takes real pressure and the only real way working people can exert pressure, in the unbalanced relationship that exists between individual employees and employers, is by acting together; collectively. And that’s what we’ve been doing week in, week out and getting real results.
The CTU has consistently identified our culture of work and the style of management as a real challenge for New Zealand firms to improve their health and safety record. Health and safety is an inseparable part of the wider workplace culture.
SaveMart employees were made to sort bales of filthy clothing dumped in Child Cancer charity bins without safety gloves. Unionized workers at New Lynn were sacked for contacting their union about it. Why did it require so much public pressure to get them reinstated? Why are our laws so inadequete?
CTU President Richard Wagstaff writes on today’s actions about his opposition to the government attempt to dismember the historic decision in the Court of Appeal for pay equity by Kristine Bartlett and E tū. National has distorted the recommendations of the Joint Working Group to restrict or even eliminate equal pay for equal work.
