Steve Baron: Unions' time may be coming again

Steve Baron

The government is currently reviewing employment relations, with the Employment Relations Amendment Bill open for public submissions.

This reminds me of a time when my father was alive, and when he often reminisced about the good old days — "the glory days" — a time when everything was easy.
He would tell me that if his boss "pissed him off" he would just tell him to stick it where the sun didn't shine, and he would be off next door where another job awaited. Such was the demand for blue-collar workers.

Those were the days when one wage was enough to live on — even enough to buy a home (sometimes with a little help from the government through Family Benefit capitalisation). It was a time when a large percentage of the population owned their own home, the Kiwi quarter-acre era.

These were also the days of income equality with a small gap between the rich and the poor. They were also the days of powerful workers unions and compulsory unionism.
But then came the turmoil of the waterfront workers dispute of 1951, the biggest industrial dispute in New Zealand's history.

Prime Minister Sidney Holland declared a state of emergency and workers went on strike for five months, with other unions downing tools in support of the wharfies.

The government sent troops on to the Auckland and Wellington wharves to load and unload ships (the main form of transportation back then) and emergency regulations were imposed. Police were given sweeping powers to search and arrest, and it was an offence for any citizen to even assist strikers.

Unbelievably, it was also illegal to give food to a striking worker's child.

The reason for this dispute was New Zealand's economic situation. Life had become a struggle, even though the economy was booming, because the cost of living had soared after years of restrictions and shortages during the war.

No surprises that workers wanted better wages to counter the ever-increasing cost of living, but the trade unions were also holding the country to ransom — or so some people felt.

During the 1980s, unemployment rose due to a lot of restructuring in the textile and freezing work industries, both big employers in those days. Railways was another industry laying off thousands of workers.

The National government also deregulated the labour market, abolishing national awards and ending compulsory unionism. Suddenly, employers had all the power.

Although this policy changed somewhat after the Helen Clark Labour government came to power, union membership has been dropping ever since, along with the power of unions and their members.

As a result, the gap between the rich and the poor has started to grow. According to Max Rashbrooke, author of The Inequality Debate, statistics show a very strong correlation between falling union membership and growing income inequality in New Zealand.

Public perception, according to numerous surveys, still shows a lack of trust in unions.

However, while workers' unions may have been too powerful in their day, they are now too weak — and workers are paying the price for that in lower wages and growing income inequality.

A study by academic Dr Bryce Edwards showed that 50 per cent of all workers were unionised in 1985, but this had dropped drastically to only 18 per cent in 2015.

Has the time now come for workers to unite, get behind their unions and make it a level playing field again? Only time will tell if there is a desire by workers to make a stand against income inequality.

Steve Baron is a Whanganui-based political commentator, author and Founder of Better Democracy NZ. He holds degrees in economics and political science.