Aotearoa: Unite union pushes for fair pay for hospitality workers

July 9, 2023
Issue 
Unite unionists campaigning for fair pay. Photo: Unite Union/Facebook
Unite unionists campaigning for fair pay. Inset: Mike Treen speaking at Ecosocialism 2023. Photo: Unite Union/Facebook

Socialist activist Mike Treen, a founder of the Aotearoa/New Zealand (NZ) Unite Union, spoke to Jackie Kriz about the issues facing unions and the left. Treen was a guest at .

Can you tell me about Unite and the struggles it is involved in?

Unite has 5000 members and is a relatively small union covering low-paid workers in fast food, cinema, hotel, casino and call centres.

The union was formed in 2003 by Matt McCarten and myself. McCarten was critical to the union鈥檚 success. Before we began organising these workers, they did not get meal breaks and they were mostly on zero contract hours. We have managed to make major improvements in members鈥 wages and conditions.

Unite is currently in the middle of striving to achieve a Fair Pay Agreement for workers in the hospitality sector. This has opened the door to expand our membership. The sector has 150,000 workers.

Our aim is to join and organise as many workers as possible to Unite. Employers are obliged to provide Unite with workers鈥 contact details 鈥 a good starting point for us.

The new agreement must improve conditions and pay for workers by law (similar to the Australian Better Off Overall Test). We can鈥檛 strike, but the courts can make a ruling on areas where we disagree about matters that are covered by the agreement. This was conditional on Labour getting re-elected in October.

Aotearoa has been hit hard by the cost of living crisis and the price of necessities is blowing out. How are the people faring? Is the government doing enough?

The rising cost of living is seen most dramatically in housing.聽 There is a massive increase in the cost of a house to the percentage of a person鈥檚 income and there are huge waiting lists for social and state housing.

State housing stock has increased modestly under Labour over the past few years, at a rate of approximately 3000 a year, but waiting lists have gone from 5000 to 25,000 which have worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Although food prices have gone up at double digit rates, there has been some success in keeping wages above inflation in some areas. Public servants, teachers and nurses have gained through strike action.

Unite members have been protected in that the minimum wage has been rising above the rate of inflation and rising as a percentage of the average wage. Benefits have also included things like weekly winter energy payments.

What was Aotearoa's response to AUKUS?

It was greeted with some shock, because further militarisation of the region is likely.

Initially we thought Aotearoa聽wouldn鈥檛 be part of this, because of the nuclear-free ships position. Aotearoa聽has also signed and ratified the .

No party is promoting an anti-China agenda. Quite the opposite. A third of NZ鈥檚 trade goes to China, it was the first country to sign a free trade agreement with China and it sponsored its admission to the World Trade Organisation.

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins recently visited China. He said the government didn鈥檛 have an opinion on the character of the government. Less hostility is welcome.

However, defence minister Andrew Little has now announced that Aotearoa聽will participate in AUKUS鈥 intelligence and technology sharing. Disappointingly, it is building off the Five Eyes arrangement. Unite has yet to take a position. The public discussion has only just started.

The Australian Labor Party talks a lot about plans for a climate transition, but it passed a law that relies on trading carbon offset credits and allows for new coal and gas projects. Greens MPs say dealing with Labor is like dealing with a coal or gas corporation. What is the situation there?

Aotearoa is marginally better, maybe.

The Green Party is in a coalition with Labour, but it doesn鈥檛 need the Greens to get votes through. The coalition鈥檚 goal in environmental policy is marginal. Agriculture, the major emitter is excluded.

There鈥檚 a lot of disappointment among Greens members about this. Labour isn鈥檛 expected to come out with a parliamentary majority at the next election.

On environment and social justice 鈥斅爓elfare, housing, even tax policy 鈥斅爐he Greens will try to get more. But they will be relying on a broken emissions trading scheme, even if they force in agriculture. That鈥檚 still relying on the market for solutions.

British leftist聽Phil Hearse linked uprisings and wars to food and聽water scarcity,聽causing climate refugees. He said climate change is worsening authoritarianism and 鈥渇ortress style鈥 policies in the Global North. Do you think this is the case?

I鈥檇 like to puncture the image of Aotearoa聽as a refugee-friendly country. It offered to take refugees detained by Australia offshore in Nauru and Papua New Guinea.

But its regular program is significantly less than Australia鈥檚 鈥 just 1500 after a recent rise. That鈥檚 a very modest number compared with the quarter of a million temporary visas that were issued each year pre-COVID-19, and again now. A quarter of a million of those who had stayed in Aotearoa聽during COVID-19 now have, after a union campaign, permanent visas.

Those temporary workers were being grossly exploited. That鈥檚 why Unite campaigned for them to get permanent visas.

Even though it鈥檚 almost impossible to get to Aotearoa聽by boat, which is why humans didn鈥檛 arrive there until 1000 years ago, the government has passed a law allowing those who arrive by ship to be detained.

What are your initial thoughts on the idea of 鈥渄egrowth communism鈥 and its impact on the Global South?

My initial reaction to the term 鈥渄egrowth鈥 is that it is unhelpful in terms of making聽clear what needs to be achieved when it's clear聽we want massive growth in some areas and we聽need to eliminate some areas of production.

For instance, we need to increase housing and social goods but not the military. We need to make sure that 鈥渄egrowth鈥 does not disadvantage the Global South. The need to de-intensify the earth鈥檚 finite resources is obvious.

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