Matt McCarten: Greedy corporates give workers few reasons to celebrate Labour Day

The official Labour Day, which celebrates the struggle for workers' rights, passed without fanfare on Wednesday.

Many of the rights workers enjoy in New Zealand were won by the sacrifice of other workers over many years. This is the day we remember their contribution.

Labour Day recognises the winning of the eight-hour day by a couple of carpenters in Auckland. One of them, Parnell, got a suburb named after him.

The eight-hour day and many other rights won by workers we once took for granted have been lost in recent years. The 10-minute smoko, won by the Blackball miners, the 40-hour week won by the Auckland freezing workers, redundancy payments won by the Mangere Bridge labourers have all disappeared.

Even the election of a Labour Government seven years ago has not turned back the tide. Although Labour has to be congratulated for increasing the minimum wage each year and granting an additional week of annual leave for workers, there is no doubt that workers' ability to earn a reasonable wage has worsened.

The problem is that we have legislation that requires employers to compete on the price of labour. This has been detrimental to New Zealand workers. Fifteen years ago, we used to negotiate national agreements that set the price of labour on the basis of what it costs workers to have a reasonable life. Nowadays, the system has been turned on its head and labour is priced on the ability of employers to make a reasonable profit.

This has allowed many unscrupulous employers to make exorbitant profits at the expense of their workers.

If you don't believe me, let me give you an example: the late Michael Erceg created Independent Liquor - an extraordinarily profitable business producing "lolly alcohol" aimed at teenagers. His family have this business on the market and all indications are that it will sell for around $1.1 billion. There is obviously a lot of money in peddling alcohol to teenagers. I notice that the debate over lowering the drinking age hypocritically ignores the real problem. Underage drinking is fuelled by corporates who target kids.

Before Independent Liquor, the brewing industry was unionised and the workers had always been able to earn a reasonable living. Independent Liquor, however, has had a clear strategy to keep its workers non-unionised. The senior managers have a conscious policy to target union members and, unsurprisingly, anybody who becomes a delegate or an active union member soon finds themselves without a job. Consequently, they are able to pay their workers $3 an hour less than other brewery workers in Auckland. They work them 12-hour shifts and up to 45 hours a week on ordinary time. In addition they pay them $50 to $100 less a week in allowances.

I spoke to the Independent Liquor managers last week. They proudly told me that, when the company was sold, Mrs Erceg would give most of the billion-dollar profit to charity. It seemed churlish for me to mention the irony that this money was and continues to be made on the backs of exploited workers.

The workers at Independent Liquor have been trying, without success, to form a union for more than two years and to gain a living wage and working conditions comparable to those of their colleagues in other breweries. In Mr Erceg's will, he asked his managers to ensure that his workers were looked after. His senior managers received millions of dollars in recognition of their contribution, but the workers on the shop floor received nothing.

When this company is sold in a few weeks, these workers will be traded to a new owner.

Unfortunately, while this is an extreme example, there are many similar examples under the new deregulated market for labour. The dignity of workers seems a very far third place behind shareholder profit and customer service. Bit by bit, hundreds of thousands of workers are slipping into the underclass because of the greed of their employers. It almost seems now that whether a Labour or National government is in power, the fundamental rules are enshrined in legislation which weakens the ability of workers to gain a fair deal.

I spoke with a friend who is a member of the Labour Party and will be attending its conference this weekend in Rotorua. Apparently, one topic under discussion has been to prioritise the main policies for the Labour Party over the next five years.

He said that the top five issues were, in order of importance: Climate Change, Global Warming, Health, Education and Senior Citizens.

The omission by a Labour Party of any reference to workers' rights to earn a decent living is telling. It seems the activists in the Labour Party see their main reason for being as to compete with the Green Party on environmental policies rather than to fight injustice towards workers and the poor - policies on which the Labour Party was formed.

It should be no surprise that the one day of the year when we celebrate the victory of workers passes unnoticed. The increasing ugliness of corporate power exploiting workers seems to be accepted as part of the status quo. When the Labour Party activists meet this weekend, they might like to reflect on why this is.