October 16, 2012

Decent work focus for union conference

Achieving good jobs and decent lives for workers is the organising call for delegates attending the FIRST Union conference which got underway today.

FIRST Union delegates are gathering in Auckland today and tomorrow for the union’s biennial conference and workshops. It marks one year since the amalgamation of the National Distribution Union and Finsec to become FIRST Union.

Delegates will consider a four year plan centred on achieving decent work and a decent life, General Secretary Robert Reid said.

“Our Decent Work – Decent Life agenda covers four main areas: jobs for all, a living wage, secure work and safe work,” he said.

“Our union has long campaigned to highlight policies that have led to the high and volatile NZ dollar, which has resulted in closures and jobs destroyed. It is very pleasing to now see a growing consensus on the need for monetary policy changes to support employment.

“On the living wage, we are proud to campaign alongside community and faith groups and other unions, in a new initiative prompted by the Service and Food Workers Union Nga Ringa Tota, and we are looking forward to promoting not only the concept but to get some real wins on the board in coming years.

“The third leg of our Decent Work agenda is secure work, and here we are committing to campaign against the most insidious form of employment being labour hire or agency employment, spreading like cancer through all of our industries, and in particular for our union, in transport, logistics and wood. We have achieved recent wins in reducing the use of casual work on jobs, and this issue will remain on our bargaining agenda, as will employment practices that exist across all of our industries where targets programmes are being used to make the life of our members miserable.

“The last pillar of our Decent Work theme is safe work. A global health and safety movement was led by workers and job delegates in the 1970s. It was a liberatory movement; it empowered workers and unions, but over time this has turned into another form of control over workers. It is not the boss that gets killed or maimed at work; it is us and our workmates. Until we turn the current health and safety system on its head, our workplaces will be neither healthy nor safe,” he said.

The conference continues today and tomorrow, and will hear from other union leaders, community groups and political party speakers.

The National Distribution Union and Finsec joined forces in October 2011 to form New Zealand’s newest union – FIRST. The union represents 27,000 people working in Finance, Industrial (Textile and Wood) Retail, Stores & Transport. http://firstunion.org.nz

ENDS

© Scoop Media