Trade Unions
By Omar Hamed.
When I raised the issue of my sister joining a Trade Union her first question was, “What is in it for me?”, followed by, “How much does it cost?” She works part-time at a telemarketing company, interviewing people over the phone for $10.50 an hour, 14 hours a week. She enjoys her job, and knows while she is still at school, moving from low paid job to low paid job is better than fixing problems at your original workplace.
Trade Unions are organisations that protect worker’s rights and campaign on behalf of workers on issues that affect them. They also represent individual or groups of employees in disputes with employers. Despite this, most high school students with part time jobs are not in unions.
David Young, formerly of the National Business Review, in his recent Listener article, was “perfectly happy” with the fact that young people are “the first unionless generation”. He sees the Employment Relations Act, passed by the Labour government in 2000, as offering all the benefits of a Union without the need to join one. Yet Young’s subtitle, “For a new generation, organised labour is history”, is misleading. Union membership has been growing since 2000 and continues to grow strongly. (Unions and Union Membership in New Zealand: Annual Review for 2004, Blackwood, Feinberg-Daniel and Lafferty.)
Young people especially have benefited from the creation of a new union called Unite. Unite is open to everyone and sets it’s fees at one per cent of member’s incomes. For my sister this would cost $1.47. In return, Unite visits workplaces and signs up members, who list what they would like to see come out of a collective agreement such as more pay or more holidays. Unite then negotiates the contract with employers and if the employees are satisfied it is implemented. Unite then sees to it that employers fulfil the terms of the contract.
“They [Unions] have failed to evolve to overcome our apathy”, maintains David Young in his Listener article. Yet for the kids working at Starbucks, KFC and many points in between “the times they are a changing”.
In Australia workers at KFC are paid a starting rate of NZ$14 with allowances for clothing, shoes and travel, while back here, friends of mine get a measly $7.60 per hour. David Young is wrong. The young people of New Zealand are not too lazy or apathetic to do something about their exploitation. Young people will evolve to overcome being ripped off.
As Bob Dylan put it “Your son’s and your daughters are beyond your command, your old road is rapidly ageing. Please get out of the new one if you can’t lend your hand, for the times they are a-changin“.
Take Action
Young Workers Unite- Rally Against Youth Rates.
12.30pm, November 30th 2005
Corner of Manners and Cuba Street’s,
Wellington.
This image was originally used in Global Focus a collaborative project of Tearaway Magazine and the Global Education Centre. It was first published in Tearaway magazine and is reprinted here with their permission. Illustrator: Gavin Mouldey
