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March-April 2006
National conference calls for workers to get political
Finsec’s national conference spent much of its time discussing how to prevent Australian-style workplace reform legislation being introduced into New Zealand. John Howard’s government in Australia has recently introduced wide-reaching industrial law that removes all but five previously legislated minimum conditions that protected workers’ rights. Among other things the new law can allow employers to wipe away conditions such as penalty rates, public holidays, meal breaks, allowances and bonuses. Businesses with 100 employees or less will be exempt from personal grievances and can dismiss their workers without appeal for any reason other than discrimination.
Several New Zealand political parties and business lobby groups have already looked to the potential of this legislation to drive down wages and remove working people’s power, then decided that New Zealand needs similar legislation (see story on page 3). The legislation is regarded to be the most anti-worker legislation in the OECD and worse than the Employment Contracts Act that drove down wages and working conditions in New Zealand during the 1990s.
Many Australian workers fear that the effect of this new law will be to wipe away over a hundred years of the political and industrial rights that they have earned through working collectively. Delegates at Finsec’s conference identified the threat of similar or worse legislation being introduced into New Zealand following the next election as one of the biggest issues facing finance workers in the next three years.
Conference delegates outlined a three-step process to face this threat:
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Build a strong campaigning union that is united in its goals for the finance industry. Strong unions will be able to resist attacks on working conditions, promote fair pay, and deliver better outcomes for working people, their families and their communities. Delegates at conference argued that this meant having strong delegates across every company and region.
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Get active. It’s time to talk about workers’ issues and rights with every person in your workplace and to encourage them to join the union for their sake, and for the sake of everyone else they work with. It is also time to openly discuss political issues and how they affect workers. This does not mean supporting a particular party, but it does mean holding to account parties that threaten to undermine workers’ rights.
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Campaign in and with the community. It is voters who hold real power in New Zealand. That is, regular people in the community. Finsec needs to expand its campaigning approach and take its messages out to the wider community. This may include supporting the community on matters of wider common concern.
Assistant Secretary of the Australian Finance Sector Union, Cath Noye, congratulated Finsec conference for identifying early and acting on the political threat workers faced. She said that she was going back home ‘pumped at the level of activism in Finsec’.
