New Zealand is one of the places in the world where there are positive signs of trade union revival.

Campaigns like Supersize My Pay have many lessons for activists and workers across the globe – this briefing explains how these struggles were won.

Background

New Zealand – just like the UK - once had very high levels of union membership. Twenty years ago around half of all workers were members of unions.

In 1991 there were over 500,000 workers in 66 unions – 43% of all waged workers. However by 1999 this had fallen to a low point of just over 300,000 members, representing 21% of workers. Some of that fall in density was due to the increase in the size of the workforce and the decline in traditional manufacturing employment.

The main reason for the fall was the introduction of anti-union laws alongside other neoliberal measures introduced by the conservative National Party. The Employment Contracts Act 1991 dramatically reduced union’s ability to organise in workplaces, to bargain collectively and to take industrial action.

Since 1999 union membership has grown by nearly 100,000. The workforce has continued to grow in the noughties, but the industrial relations climate was made easier by the Employment Relations Act 1999. Unions once more had the opportunity to visit workplaces and to bargain – although restrictions remain – for example strikes are illegal outside of negotiating periods.

By 2006 there were 382,000 union members in 166 unions. Over half (54%) of union members were women, with Maori, Pacific and Asian peoples representing 21% of members. Overall union density is nearly 22% of the workforce.

Unite the union

Unite, the union was formed in 1998 in response to government attempts to introduce a compulsory work scheme for dole claimants. The union evolved from an unemployed/community union to being a low paid workers’ union.

Unite has grown from 200 members to around 10,000 today. Some 6,000 members are organised in the fast-food and restaurant sector, with 1,000 in hotels, as well as members in call centres, casinos, cinemas and other sectors. Most of its members are in Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city.

Unite organises in Burger King, McDonalds, Wendy’s and Red Rooster. It also organises in Restaurant Brands Ltd NZ, which includes KFC, Pizza Hut and Starbucks.

The union offers “membership for life” so that members can continue to belong to the union as they move from job to job.

Unite recently announced that it was planning to merge with the Service and Food workers’ Union and the National Distribution Union, to form New Zealand’s largest private sector union, with over 50,000 members.


Supersize My Pay

Supersize My Pay was a campaign launched by Unite in 2005 to organise workers in the fast food sector.

The main demands were for:
• a $12 an hour minimum wage,
• abolish youth rates, and
• security of hours.

Mike Treen, National Director of Unite explains how it worked.

“Our campaign was above all political. We used a combination of on-the-job pressure tactics and mobilisation of broader community support to win union representation."

"We bought a bus, decorated it with the campaign material and attached big bullhorn speakers. Then we would use it to travel from one worksite to another and mobilise very loud and visible support outside the workplaces where we were organising or bargaining. Dozens of short strike were held with the young workers making a real noise on the busy highways and intersections where these fast food outlets are situated."

How Restaurant Brands was organised

"When we launched the campaign, we did it with what we called ‘the world's first Starbucks strike’ [in November 2005]. Because the pizza delivery network had one national call centre, it didn't require a lot of industrial action to put a lot of pressure on the company. We would have a rally outside the call centre on a Friday or Saturday night. The call centre workers would come out and take part. Workers could stay for as long as they liked. Some would only stay out for half an hour, some would decide to go home for the rest of the night. The net effect was to back up calls for hours."

The union organised several big events in Auckland in early 2006 to galvanise support, including a rally that filled the Auckland Town Hall followed by a march and rally through central Auckland that drew 1,500 participants. The campaign involved paid organisers and volunteers.

The union used “lightening strikes” – strikes for only a few hours, to exert pressure on employers. Strikes were short because low-paid workers could not afford to lose a day’s wages. But the action disrupted the work and caught the media’s attention.

In 2006 Restaurant Brands signed a collective agreement that increased wages, moved youth rates from 80% to 90% of the adult rate, and contained a clause that protected the work hours of existing staff before new staff would be hired.

This agreement was followed by others at McDonalds, Burger King and Wendy's with conditions similar to those at Restaurant Brands.

During 2007, the government decided that youth rates could only last for 3 months or 200 hours. With that change, McDonalds did a joint announcement with Unite that they would get rid of youth rates altogether. Other big employers are now expected to follow suit.

The government has also increased the minimum wage by degree and announced would to reach $12 by April 2008. The trade union movement is now arguing for a minimum wage of $15 an hour.

More information

Unite website www.unite.org.nz
Goldie Feinberg-Danieli and George Lafferty, 2007, Unions and Union Membership in New Zealand: Annual Review for 2006
 http://www.victoria.ac.nz/vms/disciplines/IRC/IRC_Working_Papers.aspx