@norightturnnz@mastodon.social
2026-07-17 05:05 UTC
Replies (3)
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@strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz 2026-07-17 05:19
"New employees would automatically be enrolled in a 'default union', but would be able to opt out." @norightturnnz@mastodon.social, 2026 https://norightturn.blogspot.com/2026/07/eating-labours-lunch.html This is how student union membership used to work. The right hated it, because it gave students independent and well-resourced bodies to lobby in their collective interests. They smeared it as "compulsory unionism", and sadly, its defenders let that phrase frame the debate, instead of insisting on calling it *universal*. #unions #StudentUnions
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@strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz 2026-07-17 06:07
"Union membership dropped to about 20% after National's Employment Contracts Act, and has never really recovered." "The core of the Clark government's industrial relations policy was 'give unions the tools, and let them fight and win gains for themselves'. That worked quite well." @norightturnnz@mastodon.social, 2026 https://norightturn.blogspot.com/2026/07/eating-labours-lunch.html Pick one. The Clark regime did sod all to support unions. They didn't even repeal the Nats anti-strike laws, and unions gained very little ground during or since. (1/?)
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@isaacfreeman@cloudisland.nz 2026-07-18 09:39
@norightturnnz@mastodon.social It's always a challenge for the Green Party that we actually mean things that many commentators are used to hearing from other parties only as lies. So when we say in our charter, that “decisions will be made directly at the appropriate level by those affected”, that's not empty rhetoric. It's a key principle that frequently distinguishes Green positions from Labour. Where they generally favour centralising power in government, we are for decentralising it to communities. Fair pay agreements are a typically Labour strategy: huge centralised negotiations between government and business. Connecting workers with their unions, where they can more directly set the agenda, is a more Green approach.