By writers for The Spark

Over the last month Unite Union has put the fast-food giant Burger King under the spotlight for exploitation and attempted union busting. The union is engaging in street actions, intensified industrial organising, and legal action until the company adheres to the law and industry standards.

Burger King was the last of the fast-food giants to sign a union deal after the SuperSizeMyPay campaign which took place in 2005-2006. In the years since then Burger King has kept paying below standard industry rates of pay paid by comparable companies. Conditions of work also lagged. For example, other companies agreed to 3-hour minimum shifts in 2006 but it wasn’t till years later that Burger King agreed to 2.5 hour minimum shifts.

Burger King has remained as the fast-food company paying the lowest wages. For those employed at KFC the union has negotiated for staff to move to 0.96 cents above minimum wage once the first level of training is completed. In McDonald’s the staff get 0.50 cents above minimum after basic training, and in Wendy’s most staff are able to get 0.50 cents above minimum wage after six months service. These increases are attained quite quickly by most employees. However, Burger King does not agree to relativity clauses and there are instances where staff who have been employed for ten years still struggle on minimum wage. The difference is even greater in relation to higher-graded work. In KFC the line supervisor rate has been negotiated up to $19.68, however the highest union rate at Burger King is well below that with product/service coordinators beings paid $14.25. [Read more…]

“When someone works for less pay than she can live on when, for example, she goes hungry so that you can eat more cheaply and conveniently then she has made a great sacrifice for you, she has made you a gift of some part of her abilities, her health, and her life. The ‘working poor,’ as they are approvingly termed, are in fact the major philanthropists of our society. They neglect their own children so that the children of others will be cared for; they live in substandard housing so that other homes will be shiny and perfect; they endure privation so that inflation will be low and stock prices high. To be a member of the working poor is to be an anonymous donor, a nameless benefactor, to everyone else.”

– Barbara Ehrenreich

It’s an indictment on our economic system that some of the most socially valuable work is also the lowest paid. Last month 70 members of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) and the Service and Food Workers Union Nga Ringa Tota (SFWU) employed at Aranui Home and Hospital took three days of industrial action. The majority of Aranui rest home care staff are paid the minimum wage of $13.50 an hour and over the past 11 years have only had pay increases when required by law. The workers have been in negotiations with their employer since last October.

“The Human Rights Commission’s recently released report exposed the crisis of modern day slavery occurring in residential aged care.” Said NZNO Industrial Advisor Rob Haultain. “Aranui is a very good example of this slavery. These workers are shown little respect for the complex work they do or the fact that they are the core of the employer’s business.”

“If slavery means working hard in difficult situations with challenging residents for the minimum wage then there is no question that these workers face this experience daily.”

Aranui owner Ashton Parker has interests in early childhood facilities, gynaecology services as well as residential aged care. All of those sectors receive significant state funding. In times of austerity those services are cut back or allowed to stagnate such as with this years “zero budget”. The struggle of carers at Aranui is wider than just one employer or industry, but relates to the wider situation New Zealand finds itself in four years into the great recession caused by the global financial crisis.

Byron Clark

Mike Kay

In the first half of 2012 we have seen the bosses attack New Zealand workers in some of their strongest bastions: the Ports of Auckland and the freezing works. In this talk I want to focus on a single aspect of both disputes, namely, the role of iwi in assisting the workers.

This was most pronounced in the Talley’s/ AFFCO dispute, where up to 90% of the union membership is Māori. Also, quite crucially, 40% of beef production at AFFCO comes from Māori trusts. Talley’s must have perceived the defeat suffered by unionists at ANZCO/ CMP in Martin last year as a signal that they too could finish off the union in their plants. After a mere ten hours at the negotiating table Talley’s locked out hundreds of workers who refused to sign Individual Employment Agreements that gave away terms and conditions that had been built up over years.

Now it’s no secret that the leadership of Meat Workers Union struggled to organise the dispute. After 20 years without a major “blue”, they were caught on the hop by Talley’s full frontal assault. They turned to the CTU for help. But it was the involvement of the CTU’s Māori representative body, the Rūnanga, and its Vice President Māori Syd Keepa in particular, that were decisive in turning around the fortunes of the meatworkers. [Read more…]

Back in October last year, The Spark carried an article highlighting the struggle of I-Kiribati horticulture workers in Warkworth against redundancies. Since then, their site delegate, Botau Retire, was sacked by the employer, Southern Paprika, in January. He has just won reinstatement with 11 weeks’ pay plus $4500 compensation at the Employment Relations Authority.

In July 2011 Botau investigated an incident of a racist text message on a company phone. According to the sworn evidence of a former Cadet Manager, the text read: “The best Christmas present I ever had was a nigger hanging from a tree.” No-one was punished for the text, but Botau was given a warning for “threatening or abusive behaviour”. The Authority Member, Robin Arthur found that Botau’s warning was “not proportionate or soundly based on evidence”.

The dismissal was a result of a dispute between Botau and the Company who wanted to prevent him attending a mediation session with another union member because they said he hadn’t given them sufficient notice. Botau said that he felt it was his duty as a delegate to assist his fellow unionist and act as an interpreter. Mr Arthur found the dismissal unjustified and ordered reinstatement.

Very few successful cases of unjustified dismissal result in reinstatement – last year, the government changed the law so that it was no longer the primary remedy. But Mr Arthur cited a 1994 Employment Court statement that: “to award routinely compensation for the job loss instead of reinstating is to create a system for licensing unjustifiable dismissals.” That guidance was given under the Employment Contracts Act 1991, which also did not have reinstatement as the primary remedy.

Hopefully this determination will encourage more workers to fight to get their jobs back, rather than just accepting monetary compensation.

For more information:

• Kiribati workers, members of Northern AWUNZ, fight redundancies and racism in Warkworth
• Southern Paprika Limited dispute outcome
• Department of Labour determination