Heather Roy´s Diary

"Heather Roy´s Diary" is the weekly newsletter from Heather Roy MP.

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Industrial Inaction

Something has the unions excited this week.

Actors´Equity got fired up, and has possibly ensured most Kiwi actors will never work in New Zealand again. The Council of Trade Unions (CTU) had a `National day of action for fairness´, which actually called for them to be inactive. Medical Laboratory Workers went on strike ... again, and the Radiographers have threatened to. The Junior Doctors Union (Resident Doctors Association) has been advertising how great it is on TV. In the midst of the school exam season the teachers have started rolling strikes - but have organised things so they still get paid.

And I´ve upset the student unions with my Bill to give students the basic right to Freedom of Association. They are highly offended that students shouldn´t be compelled to pay a union fee in order to study.

Marches, protests, threats, hobbits and own goals - all this union activity would make quite a good soap opera, if only the actors were allowed to work.

So what exactly is going on? The cynics would claim that an economic slowdown with a Right Wing government in power is probably the answer. Since union membership was made voluntary in the early 1990s there´s been much less in the way of industrial action.

The student associations (unions) have been fearful for years of losing their funding and have always opposed my Bill to have Voluntary Student Membership (VSM).

The activity of the others is less clear-cut. It may just be political muscle-flexing, but there are other factors to take in to account.

At the end of Question Time on Wednesday I fielded three questions about my Bill. The Second Reading of the Bill went ahead on Wednesday evening, but was slowed by Labour Party filibustering. No vote was taken - that will happen on the next Member´s Day but won´t alter when the Bill comes into effect.

In the General Debate that followed Question Time, Bill English took the first slot and began by speaking about the economy in general. As expected he was critical of Labour´s stewardship of the economy, although he did give Michael Cullen credit for keeping New Zealand´s debt low. It´s not often that a National Minister gives a Labour Finance Minister credit, so it is worth listening to.

Phil Goff, who spoke next, predictably put all New Zealand´s problems down to two years of National Government and dismissed any attempt to blame Labour. He was clearly reading from a prepared speech, as he completely missed Bill English´s compliment about Labour´s debt reduction. It was an important point because of the global recession. Generally speaking, those countries with low government debt have done best in the crisis.

Countries that have high debt have had to introduce measures to decrease spending and the news is full of images of street protest against decreases in government spending.At the moment protests in France are commonplace and Greece is going through a longstanding industrial war.

New Zealanders who took part in the CTU `Day of Action´ no doubt see themselves as opposing Government austerity - but the Government has not been austere.To create a sense of grievance the CTU protested on `workers´ rights´, citing the 90-day probationary period when a new worker can be dismissed. This is a comparatively minor issue in the current economic climate, and it is for Parliament to decide employment law - not the trade unions.

The Government has released figures showing that workers´ spending power has risen under National, but the CTU ignores the statistics. The union is using its position to foster a sense of grievance that isn´t based on facts. The problem is a political one. If you look at the background of Labour MPs, many have been trade union officials or teachers. Many leaders of the CTU and the Post Primary Teachers Association (PPTA) see themselves as future Labour MPs. This is why union activism increases under National governments.

Long-term observers of strike action will have noticed a seismic shift in the nature of strikesWhen I was young, freezing workers and watersiders had a reputation for militancy. These unions are hardly heard from now. The militant activity is now seen in the public sector. Nowadays it is teachers, junior doctors and para-medicals who dominate the news of workplace action.

The culture in the Private Sector has changed. Unions in the freezing works do not want their employers to make a loss - they know that loss-making works will be closed and that costs the unions, workers and management alike. This constraint doesn´t apply when working for government, and is one of the reasons that government should provide as little in the way of services as possible.

Those working in free enterprise also often have a variety of options. If you work for a builder, and don´t like him, you can look for employment elsewhere. But if you work for the government you tend to be working for a monopoly employer so working conditions are duplicated around the country.

The Government has been called upon to act. Senior doctors have asked the Health Minister to outlaw strikes because of the disruption to the Public Health Sector. He has, quite rightly, refused. But the Government looks sets to intervene in `The Hobbit´ saga - it´s never good when the government gets involved, and it looks like this story has some distance to run yet.

Lest We Forget -Labour Day

We celebrate Labour Day as a national holiday over the last weekend of October, and most are looking forward to three days off this weekend. The day commemorates the battle for an eight-hour working day.

The first official celebration of Labour Day was on October 28 1890, when thousands of trade union members and supporters attended parades in the main centres. Government employees were given the day off and many businesses were closed for the day. The 1890 Liberal Government passed laws to encourage the formation of unions, but it was not until the 1940s that the first Labour Government introduced the eight- hour day and 40-hour week as standard for most workers. Now that was a real battle worth fighting.

ENDS

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