Union movement ‘under attack', meeting told
Dunedin workers who turned out in force yesterday to demand better rights were told the union movement is under attack.
The University of Otago Union Hall was overflowing as about 500 workers from across Dunedin piled in to hold a joint stop-work meeting for "May Day" yesterday.
Unions Otago convener Andrew Tait said the reason the unions decided to have a joint meeting was because there "was a sense that the government was bringing through attacks on the union movement as a whole".
Unions Otago convener Andrew Tait. PHOTOS: LINDA ROBERTSON
"We need to actually think across different sectors about the challenges that are facing the union movement," he said.
He said unions and their members were vital for justice and vital for democracy.
"But we're under attack.
"The private sector industries like construction and forestry have been gutted of their unions, with costs that's been paid in blood.
"The public sector has been under massive attack since this National Party came in with thousands of jobs lost — our only power is collective and our only strength is solidarity."
Workers from many Dunedin businesses — including Farmers, Countdown, Foodstuffs, the University of Otago, Otago Polytechnic, Ministries of Justice and Education, Department of Conservation, KFC, Kmart, Bunnings, Dunedin Railways — were represented at the meeting.
Unions are allowed to hold a stop-work meeting twice a year. Each meeting can run for up to two hours.
Senior doctors on strike also attended the meeting.
500-person crowd during a stop-work meeting at the University of Otago Union Hall yesterday.
"We were really glad to be able to have the doctors here — stop-work meetings are one thing, but more important than that is a strike."
He said strikes were a collective show of power: "If you just do your job every day, then you get taken for granted."
"You stop work, then suddenly they realise how much value you create, how important you are for the system, and when people strike, it's really important that everybody supports them."
laine.priestley@odt.co.nz
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