MANA and Industrial Relations: “Between equal rights, force decides”
Source: http://fightback.org.nz/2014/06/22/mana-and-industrial-relations-between-equal-rights-force-decides/
Fightback participates in the MANA Movement, whose stated mission is to bring “rangatiratanga to the poor, the powerless
and the dispossessed.” Capitalism was imposed in Aotearoa through colonisation, and the fight for indigenous
self-determination is intimately connected with the fight for an egalitarian society.
Leading up to the election, we will be examining the major policies that have been developed within MANA over the last
three years. As members of MANA we have been a part of the critical (and some times heated) discussions at branch, rohe
and national levels, discussing what these policy areas mean as well as what is needed to bring about these radical
changes.
This article by Joel Cosgrove (Fightback) examines MANA's Industrial Relations policy in relation to wider struggles.
Industrial relations are an essential area of struggle. The workplace – the “point of production” (the space where
decisions about what is produced are made) is a primary site of struggle between workers and bosses. The right to
strike, the right to organize and the right to associate have been resisted by bosses and their organisations and fought
for by workers.
Youth rates, (low) minimum wages and the gender pay gap, are all structural tools that drag down wages as a whole.
Anyone who has worked in the jobs that generally pay youth rates (supermarkets, fast food, retail etc) knows that the
work done, whether by a 17 year old or a 19 year old, is no different. Historically it used to be argued that women
couldn’t work as hard as men, or do jobs that involved complicated thinking. The point of these claims is an attempt to
undermine our pay rates.
Even when the working class is successful in winning gains, the bosses will constantly try to claw them back. Currently
in Australia, weekend work is paid out at time and a half (150% of normal pay) and the Abbot government are trying to
undermine that by drawing it down to time and a quarter (125%) Restaurant & Catering Australia CEO John Hart has been quoted as saying:
“The industry will most likely save about $112 million each year - with this decision ensuring the industry continues to
push for further penalty rate reforms under the Fair Work Commission four- yearly review of Modern Awards.”
Of course, NZ workers have already lost penalty rates for working weekends or after hours.
The battle between workers and bosses is a battle for the profit created through the work of workers and it is at this
point, over the pay and conditions that bosses are forced to pay, that the struggle is fiercest.
This is why MANA’s policies around ending the 90 day trial period, youth rates and extending paid parental leave to one
year are important elements in a fightback. Supporting gender pay and employment equity is another important aspect of
this policy, with the case of Kristine Bartlett’s claim that caregivers (made up of 92% women) being paid at just above
the minimum wage demonstrates a gender bias against women currently going through the Court of Appeal.
Aotearoa is a nation framed by overwork or underwork. On average according to the OECD, New Zealanders work 1,762 hours
a year compared to places like Germany and Netherlands who work 1,397 and 1,381 hours per year respectively. When you
compare the average wages of the respective countries you find that Germans earn $US30,721; the Dutch $US25,697; and New
Zealanders $US21,773. Yet polling company Roy Morgan reportthe unemployment rate as being 8.5% (compared to an official
rate of 6%), with a further 11.3% under-employed. Collectively, 19.8% of the workforce (or around 519,000 people) were
are either unemployed or under-employed.
British think tank New Economics Foundation has outlined a plan where the average working week is 21 hours a week,
almost halving hours worked, while maintaining wages through increased taxation and a number of other measures. The
question remaining is how this political change would actually be brought about. As Eco-socialist Ian Angus says, change will not happen just because it is the right thing to do.
Mana’s policies around this area include initially strengthening a return to a 40 hour week and restoring penal rates
for those working for over 40 hours a week or 8 hours a day; increasing sick days from five to ten; and bringing in a
minimum redundancy payment of six weeks’ pay for the first year of employment and two weeks’ pay for each subsequent
year of employment. The initial aim of these reforms is to make it more expensive for employers to make workers bear the
brunt of any changes they make. Employers in Aotearoa have a history of exacting cuts in pay and conditions of employees
to increase their rate of profit. Unite Union head Mike Treen has pointed to workers’ productivity increasing by 83%
while real wages (inflation adjusted) fell by 25%. This is the result of weak defences of workers’ conditions around
hours and penal rates.
Competition between companies over the past few decades has centred on who can cut workers’ pay and conditions the most.
In the past industry conditions (or awards) set out minimum conditions and pay that in part functioned to undermine the
ability to cut them - the minimum wage is an example of this in action. This is another area covered in MANA’s policy,
setting out industry awards/minimum conditions as well as making sure that workers performing any outsourced government
services are not employed in worse conditions than those in government, something which is currently endemic with
cleaners’ contracts.
As good as these various policies are, they rely on the workers to uphold and push them forward, and to punish employers
who break them. The right to strike is central to this. Workers en masse downing tools and stopping production cuts to
the chase and forces the issue. The right to strike has been progressively cut back over the years, until in almost all
situations it is illegal to strike. MANA policy puts forward “the right to strike for workers to enforce their contact
and on any significant political, economic, cultural and environmental issues. MANA policy extends the right to strike
to these issues but also gives an example of “workers for Fisher and Paykel in New Zealand taking action in support of
Fisher and Paykel employees in Thailand”, an important aspect of internationalism demonstrated by the worldwide protests
around the world recently in May against McDonalds’ global anti-worker policies.
Yet it was Karl Marx who said “between two equal rights, force is the arbiter”, namely the right of employers to legally undermine workers conditions and workers fight for
improved conditions. For example, from 1990 to 1999 the minimum wage moved from $6.13 to $7.00 and from 2000-2009 the
minimum wage increased from $7.00 to $12.50. That the National party (who increased it in the 90’s by 87 cents) have
increased the minimum wage since 2008 by $1.75 is something worth investigating further. The difference is the mass
struggle that was waged in the 00’s, particularly by Unite Union, which forced the political situation to change - to
the point where the National party felt they had to increase the minimum wage each year (in the face of opposition from
their own supporters).
What we can see from all this is that these rights are not given, they’re fought for. MANA might have an excellent
industrial policy, but actually bringing this about will be a massive struggle. There are already examples that show how
struggle can be waged to win these conditions. We need to learn from them and develop new and creative ways to push
forward the fight for a fairer and egalitarian society that benefits the many and not the few.
ENDS