Resene workers have been taking strike action in a bid to be paid the living wage. Photo / Melissa Nightingale
A well-known Kiwi company has been accused by E Tū of rare “union-busting” tactics, with claims bonuses and work perks such as free Hurricanes tickets were withheld from some union members during a living wage dispute.
Resene declined to comment to the Herald on the latest claims from the union, other than to reiterate “we have negotiated in good faith with the E Tu Union, and will continue to do so”.
Resene factory workers have been campaigning for a living wage for more than a year now, with some sharing tales of surviving on canned food and being unable to afford birthday presents for their children because their wages did not cover the increased cost of living.
E tū Union previously estimated Resene would need to pay an extra $200,000 a year to lift members to the living wage – currently $28.85 an hour – describing that figure as “a drop in the ocean” compared with the company’s revenue and overall budget. Most factory workers were on an average of $25 an hour.
The living wage is a regularly revised hourly rate that its proponents say represents the minimum required to meet basic needs, modest leisure activities, and rainy-day savings.
E Tū director Finn O’Dwyer-Cunliffe said they are now taking Resene to the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) over claims union members are being discriminated against in the workplace.
He claimed this included only giving Hurricanes tickets to people not in the union, and alleged the company had unlawfully withheld small performance bonuses from one department in response to their strike action. The company has a sponsorship deal with the Hurricanes.
He claimed the actions were verging on “American-style union busting” and that it was “very rare to see this kind of extreme behaviour”.
“We obviously negotiate with companies up and down the country, have done for decades, hundreds if not thousands of different companies, and it’s pretty rare that we see these kind of intimidation tactics,” he said.
E Tū union members have filed for facilitated bargaining, where the ERA brings the two parties together to help them reach an agreement and make recommendations.
O’Dwyer-Cunliffe said Resene opposed facilitation and had indicated they would not be making a further offer.
He said the best offer received was an average 84c per hour increase, but that there was also uncertainty about how bonuses might be affected going forward.
He said they were not asking for “anything special”, noting the living wage was still well below the average wage in New Zealand.
It was “sad and disappointing one of the most successful manufacturing companies in New Zealand owned by one of the most wealthy families across the country” would not come to the table.
Members were being “made to feel pretty miserable” and had had some “challenging interactions” at work, he claimed.
E Tū delegate Lui Betham said since the dispute began “people won’t even look at me or wave back when I see them”.
“We are feeling the pressure from the inside … but we have people in this union who have been at Resene for over 20 years and are still on less than the Living Wage, and that keeps us fighting," he said.
“We are blown away by the community support for us we’ve received, which gives us the power to stand up for what’s right.”
Fellow delegate Margaret Jackson claimed the culture at Resene made staff feel “divided from our union through scare tactics and by treating us differently from others”.
“We feel like we have targets on our backs just because we are union members,” she claimed.
“They don’t value us enough to even pay us a Living Wage, and they keep investing in everything except their staff. We just want a slice of Resene’s bread, and we are not asking for a lot.
“We’re doing all this for the future of our families and communities, so the people behind us aren’t left settling for crumbs, and don’t have to fight just to survive.”
Workers have received support during the campaign from the Naenae community, which has regularly raised money to help cover lost wages during strikes.
Resene, which has its head office and main manufacturing sites in the Hutt Valley, earlier provided a short statement to the Herald.
“Our offer is consistent with the manufacturing sector annual wage increase for the current 12-month period. We will continue to negotiate in good faith with the E Tū union, who represent a small segment of our manufacturing workforce,” a spokesman said at the time.
An email sent to multiple members of the community from managing director Nick Nightingale last year said the company did not intend to join the living wage scheme.
He said the living wage concept was a “blunt approach” that did not factor in differences between low and high-performing workers.
“This is not an approach I agree with,” he said.
There will be another strike and rally outside the company’s Naenae headquarters on Wednesday morning.
Melissa Nightingale is a Wellington-based reporter who covers crime, justice and news in the capital. She joined the Herald in 2016 and has worked as a journalist for 10 years. She is not related to Resene’s Nick Nightingale.