THE UNIONIST: Worker and workforce issues dominate early on

The Unionist returns this week and reports on major political speeches in the last fortnight and new employment figures out this week which has seen wages and incomes, skills and the economy dominate early on this election year.  We also summarise CTU upcoming events in the weekly events calendar.

Worker and workforce issues dominate early on

Major political speeches in the last fortnight and new employment figures out this week has seen wages and incomes, skills and the economy dominate early on this election year.

Late last year, the Council of Trade Unions lead a debate on the wage gap with Australia, highlighting that tax cuts alone would not address the gap and that increased collective bargaining and industry wide answers to skills, standards, wages and capital investment were needed.  In October, the CTU launched its political strategy, centered around work rights, strong public services and higher wages.

Yesterday, Finance Minister Michael Cullen used a speech to talk of the need to “drive faster increases” in wages and outlined government priorities in skills, infrastructure and lifting productivity.   It followed last week’s major speeches on skills and training from party leaders. 

In response to yesterday’s speech, CTU president Helen Kelly welcomed the government’s broad economic agenda around skills, infrastructure and productivity underpinned by a commitment to fairness.

“In particular, the Finance Minister’s remarks about the need to drive “faster increases” in wages recognises more can be done to lift wage rates.”

“Unions are working hard to lift New Zealand workers’ wages and make some headway into the wage gap with Australia, and we agree that business needs to pick up the challenge also.”

“It is good to see government begin to outline some of the rationale behind tax cuts, and to confirm public services will not be cut, but we agree that closing the wage gap with Australia is about much more than cutting taxes,” Helen Kelly said.

Earlier in the week, key employment data was released, showing the lowest unemployment in decades, and the latest figures on wages.

On Thursday the CTU said that record low unemployment figures were good news and enabled a renewed focus in 2008 on supporting those in work to lift skills, as well as try to go even lower than 3.4 percent for the unemployment rate reported.

“The CTU will continue its call for decent work for all New Zealand workers, which addresses issues around work-life balance, better pay, productivity and secure hours,” secretary Carol Beaumont said.

There were still 77,000 people out of work though, and once we add those discouraged or presently unable to work the figure becomes 146,000, Beaumont said.  There were also 88,000 people looking for more hours, and ethnic disparities in unemployment figures remained – unemployment for Maori (7.3%) and Pacific people (4.7%) are both down but still higher than Pakeha (2.3%), Beaumont said.

“This shows that with a concerted approach we can still improve on the very good figures out today, and our goal still remains full employment.”

On Tuesday, wages data showed that the pace of wage increase is unchanged from a year ago, and the CTU said that a wage catch up was needed.

“Wages were up by 3.3% in 2007 compared with 3.2 percent for 2006. For those workers that got a wage increase, the median increase of 4 percent for 2007 is less than the 4.2 percent recorded for 2006 while the average increase last year of 5.6 percent is similar to the 5.5 percent level in 2006,” CTU Economist Peter Conway said.

Peter Conway said that we need wages to rise to attract and retain workers and this level of increase will not add significantly to inflation pressures caused by food and petrol price rises.

Lifts in productivity and a higher level of income going into savings through KiwiSaver mean that wage increases of around 5 percent in today’s figures are not only good for workers but are affordable and should not affect the official cash rate, he said.

“The labour market has been tight for 6 years – yet wage growth has been modest to say the least in that period,” he said.

Weekly Events Calendar

Unions Local

Unions Tauranga
Mon 11 Feb, 4pm.
Seafarers Centre, Hull Rd, Mt Maunganui. 
garry.parsloe@munz.org.nz

Unions Auckland
Thur 14 Feb, 4pm
Trades Hall, 147 Gt Nth Rd.
garry.parsloe@munz.org.nz

Unions Northland
Tue 26 Feb, 4pm
TUC, 7 First Ave, Whangarei
garry.parsloe@munz.org.nz

Unions Wellington
Monday 3 Mar, 5pm.
CTU, Lv 7, West Block, 178 Willis St Wellington
pbolster@anet.co.nz 

Campaigns/Other

March 8th International Working Women's Day.  The International Trade Union Confederation will be releasing a campaign Global Campaign for Decent Work , Decent Life for Women, and over 55 countries will be participating in the release of the international pay equity stats which will occur on March 7th. In Wellington a CTU  women's Council event will be held on March 6th from 5.30-7.30pm - contact the CTU for further information on this :eileenb@nzctu.org.nz.  The Unionist will have details of other events in forthcoming issues leading up to the day.

"TALKING UNION"
Learn to get listened to [in
a union focused environment]
5:15-7:00 pm, Thursday 21st Feb
NZCTU Boardroom, 7th Floor
Education House, Willis St.

CTU Meetings, Training

Workplace Productivity Challenge Workshop
There is no charge to attend the Productivity Challenge which is an EREL-approved course.
Financial assistance is available for travel, wage reimbursement (if not on EREL or other leave) and other associated costs. Next courses are:

Thursday 6 March 2008, 9 am - 4.30 pm - Auckland
Wednesday 12 March 2008, 9 am - 4.30 pm - Dunedin
Friday 14 March 2998, 9 am - 4.30 pm - Hamilton
Friday 14 March 2998, 9 am - 4.30 pm – Christchurch
Wednesday 2 April 2008, 9 am - 4.30 pm – New Plymouth
Friday 4 April 2008, 9 am - 4.30 pm – Palmerston North
Friday 11 April 2008, 9 am - 4.30 pm – Petone Wellington

Register now for one of these workshops. Dates for 2008 workshops and Registration forms for these workshops above are on the CTU website. If you wish to register interest in a future workshop please tell us your name and location and details of how to contact you.
Email Sandy - productivity@nzctu.org.nz. Check out the WPEP website for more information: http://union.org.nz/workplaceproductivity.html

Contact
For information about the Unionist, or to list upcoming CTU events, contact CTU Communications and Campaigns Organiser Sam Huggard on 04-802-3817, or email samh@nzctu.org.nz.