There is a class of New Zealanders who work and still struggle to make ends meet. People out there – in supermarkets, in restaurants and in sales - who make just $12.75 an hour.
That’s $510 a week before tax to pay for everything – housing, food and clothing. It all has to come out of the money made from that $12.75.
Jared Phillips, Unite’s organizer for the Waikato/Bay of Plenty area calls these people New Zealand’s working poor.
Phillips says the minimum wage is not enough. Unite represents workers in the lower paid industries and they are calling for an across-the-board raise in the base rate to $15 and hour.
But that’s just the beginning.
Unite has also proposed pegging the minimum wage to New Zealand’s average hourly rate, so workers are guaranteed to earn two-thirds of the average national income, no matter what.
With the average hourly earnings in 2009 sitting at $25.39, Unite’s proposed legislation means the minimum wage would start at $16.90.
Phillips says all workers should be able to support their families on what they earn.
“We call this the living wage campaign because workers should be able to support their families in a decent way,” he says.
The Union’s efforts are being focused on a petition, currently being circulated across the country.
“We need to get 300,000 people to sign the petition by May 4 for a referendum to be held,” he says. “The industries we deal with has a very high turnover so it’s too small a base to really move the campaign. But we have support from the Greens, Labour and the Maori Party.”
A political solution is the only way the minimum wage will change, says Phillips.
“We can’t go to business owners and say you have to pay $15 when their neighbours are paying $12.75. So we really need a political approach.”
But with the government leaning right, the union based legislation faces an uphill battle.
Phillips argues that National came in to power with more blue-collar support then they have had in the past. While they may have recognized these voters in the beginning, things are fast changing.
“Upfront clawbacks are being put to working people,” says Phillips. He uses possible the GST hikes and 90 day working probation as examples of this political shift.
“Our focus is to use the referendum to force the political hand.”
Phillips says Unite still needs 100,000 signatures before they can take their argument to the next level.
“We really need to make this referendum happen. We need to have this debate on a mass level – not just in board rooms and at universities, but everywhere.”
Signing the petition doesn’t mean support for the cause but rather support for the debate, says Phillips. He would like to see people against or ambivalent to the wage increase to sign on as well.
“Parliamentary democracy offers little in the way of public debate,” says Phillips. “Referendums are very important to trigger discussions.”
This debate needs to be happening on campus, says Phillips.
“Its very important that we are talking about it here because universities used to be the critical conscience of society – we need students help public discussion.”
Phillips also points out that while students pay high fees, their education is still heavily subsidized by the taxes paid by workers.
“Workers support students to come to university so students should also support workers in the pay debate.”
One argument used against raising the minimum wage is the recession. Phillips argues that this is a smoke screen.
“The crisis was based in the financial sector and largely to do with speculative capital. It’s not the fault of the working people. Why should we pay for the their crisis?” says Phillips. “We don’t want to back track in workers rights just because of the recession.”
Professor Tim Maloney, head of Auckland University of Technology’s Department of Economics says raising the wage could be beneficial as well as negative to those on low incomes.
“On one hand raising the wage could help, but on the other hand it could hurt,” he says. “As a group this sort of measure increases the aggregate income but the question is: how many people will loose their jobs because of the higher wages?”
Research has proven that higher wages equals fewer jobs, says Maloney.
“Going to two-thirds of the average wage is unprecedented,” he says. “There will be some loss of employment. And unfortunately, if there are any losses it is usually the people you want to protect the most that lose out.”
Maloney says there are other ways to improve the lot of the working poor.
“From policy perspective this is barking up the wrong tree. If you want to lift people’s employment prospects then you have to lift their skills, you have to make them more valuable to the employer.”
For more information on Unite’s Living Wage campaign, go to www.unite.org.nz

Unite on campus launch
Unite union is launching its Waikato University campus club. Unite leader, Herald on Sunday columnist, and political commentator Matt McCarten will present on topics such as the current government, the Living Wage campaign and how Unite hopes to engage students to support each other and the working poor in New Zealand.
When: 5.10pm, Wednesday 17 March
Where: SG.01.

A brief history of unions in New Zealand
1889 - In 1889 representatives of the maritime unions, as well as coal miners, join together to form the Maritime Council, the first New Zealand-wide labour organisation.
1890 –Seamen and watersiders at Port Chalmers, Dunedin, walk off the job in September 1890 because of an industrial dispute in Sydney that involved their employer. Within days their fellow union members in other ports join the dispute, and the country’s wharves come to a standstill. Companies work together to smash the unions.
1894 - The Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act 1894 is passed by the new Liberal-Labour government. An alliance between the unions and the government results in the 1898 introduction of the first old-age pension in the English-speaking world.
1913 – New Zealand becomes one of the most highly unionized countries in the world. Union extremism leads to violent conflict between militant unions and employers.
1930 – The great depression weakens the unions, with some collapsing all together.
1935 – The election of the new Labour government introduces a fresh wave of hope for the unions.
1937 - Delegates from most blue-collar labour organisations in the country meet to form the second New Zealand Federation of Labour (FoL). This organization comes to play a major role in government backroom dealings.
1944 - FoL leaders back demands by engineering workers in the Hutt Valley for two weeks’ paid leave at Christmas. The Labour government eventually agrees to introduce the first legislation guaranteeing holiday pay for all workers.
Militant unions brake off from FoL to form their own Trade Union Congress.
1951 - Employers lock out waterside workers who refuse to work overtime. Other unions join them in what becomes the 1951 waterfront dispute. The militant unions are destroyed, their leaders are blacklisted, and the FoL strengthens its power within the labour movement.
1960s – 1970s – Claims that the FoL has fallen out of touch with workers.
1987 - The FoL and the Public Service Association unite to create a new organisation, the Council of Trade Unions (CTU).
1991 – Employment Relations Act 1991 is introduced into law by the newly elected national government. This deregulates labour markets and turned all collective contracts into individual contracts between an individual employee and his or her employer.
2000 - The Employment Relations Act 2000 restores the term ‘union’ and specifies that only unions registered under the act can represent employees in collective bargaining.
http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/unions-and-employee-organisations