Ross Wilson: Let's all take the high road

Three important Government initiatives in the past month highlight the challenge for New Zealand as it faces up to a resurgent China.

The emergence of this giant power adds weight to calls to move the economy up the value chain.

Amendments to the Employment Relations Act, which came into effect on December 1, will boost union-based collective bargaining. The launch of "The Workplace Productivity Challenge" report heralds a joint Government, business and trade union effort to improve labour market productivity.

And the Prime Minister's announcement of free-trade negotiations with China and Asean countries has the potential to boost the primary production and processing sector, but negatively affect the manufacturing sector.

The Act provides a good-faith framework within which to develop the modern workplace relationships necessary to meet the needs of the future.

Our future lies in building a high-value, highly skilled economy that recognises the value of skills and knowledge and treats labour as a valuable asset.

The Council of Trade Unions (CTU) has accepted the responsibility to workers to move forward as a modern, participatory union movement which is relevant to workers' interests, is professional and which leads the debate around a broad agenda of economic and social development.

There are reasons to believe that business might be getting past the dire-warnings strategy and the CTU is becoming more confident that there is a critical mass of employer commitment to the "high-road" agenda.

Even if that is so, we still have to get workers on board. As we saw in the 1990s, you can't have a growth strategy without the workers being behind it.

The growth culture survey of people undertaken by the Growth and Innovation Advisory Board provides some clues as to how that should be done. It showed that people distrust a top-down agenda, they distrust big business and are seeking quality of life for all, not just economic growth.

It is clear a process of engagement is needed that reaches into all workplaces - an adult education process which involves workers in a real discussion about the future of their industry, and acknowledges their views and contribution.

In this way, the Growth and Innovation Framework can become a dynamic process of change rather than a static policy framework.

Such an initiative will require leadership from business, Government and employers. The CTU is ready to provide that leadership. But we need a three-way initiative to make it work.

We have talked about productivity, decent work, work-life balance and industry development for long enough. We need to get on and do it.

In some sectors, there is a real urgency and none more so than in manufacturing with the emergence of China.

The impact of China on all countries, including ours, will be immense over the coming years, whether or not we have a free-trade agreement.

It is estimated that even developing countries such as Bangladesh and Indonesia will each lose up to a million manufacturing jobs to cheaper labour options in China.

While it is true that a free trade agreement with China may open up large opportunities in the primary production and processing sector in particular, we must be careful not to just talk up those gains while talking down the manufacturing losses.

And while shifting production off-shore to China might be seen as a solution to some employers, such as the ones I spoke to at the Gateway to China Conference in Auckland a few months ago, it is certainly no solution for New Zealand workers. We still have 300,000 jobs in manufacturing.

We have to carefully think through our manufacturing strategy here.

Part of the solution is to move our products and services up the value chain so we aren't competing just on price, but on Kiwi innovation and skill into higher value products which China can't match. Our trade policy needs to be much more than promoting market access for value-added commodities.

That is another reason we need to get on with it, and why any growth strategy must encompass social goals, and speak to a wider audience than just the business elite.

As the leader of an organisation that represents about 300,000 working New Zealanders I am looking forward to progressing the debate in the new year.

I am confident that a consensus is building for us to quickly get on to the high road with higher skills and higher value products, whether they are goods or services.

The CTU will certainly be working to encourage debate in the workplace and to raise awareness among workers that the maintenance of our unique Kiwi lifestyle, for ourselves, our children and grandchildren, is very much dependent on developing our knowledge and skills (and our incomes) as the cornerstone of a modern 21st century Aotearoa-New Zealand.

* Ross Wilson is president of the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions.