Shane Bentley
The biggest protests in the history of New Zealand took place in 1991. The focus of this anger was the plan to introduce anti-union laws as harsh as any in the Western world. Hundreds of thousands of New Zealand workers took to the streets in protest.
Despite this, the conservative National Party was able to put the laws in place in May of that year. After almost six years of a Labour government, many of them are still in place today. So what happened?
The story starts with the election of the Labour government of David Lange in July 1984. The nuclear-free PM unleashed some of the most radical free-market reforms embarked on in any industrialised country. Finance minister Roger Douglas and his "Rogernomics" turned the NZ economy on its head.
More than $10 billion of public assets were privatised: Air New Zealand, Telecom, NZ Steel, banks, insurance and shipping companies all went under the hammer. Tariffs were slashed, the NZ dollar floated, the finance industry deregulated, tax rates for the rich halved and the Goods and Services Tax (GST) introduced. User-pays policies were introduced in higher education, hospitals and on public transport.
With the support of senior union leaders, the Labour Relations Act of 1987 began to limit workers' right to strike. More than 100,000 manufacturing jobs were lost in five years, while the rich drowned in their newfound wealth.
Rogernomics meant that the NZ economy stagnated, unemployment rose and wages fell. Then a terrible recession hit. Labour PM David Lange sacked Roger Douglas at the end of 1998. Lange resigned nine months later. But even this did not save Labour.
On the back of a huge non-vote from workers fed up with Labour, Jim Bolger's National Party government won office in November 1990. Just like John Howard's so-called "thumping mandate" of October 2004, the NZ Nationals won a 70% majority in the 97-seat parliament with only 48% of the vote.
Within days of the Nationals' victory, the Employment Contracts Act was rolled out. It was so extreme that unions were to be written out of the law as a distinct institution (they were to become "incorporated societies"). The very word "union" was virtually omitted from the ECA.
Awards that ensured minimum pay and conditions for thousands were to be swept away. Workers would have the "freedom" to individually negotiate with their boss. Individual contracts were to reign supreme. All strikes were to be banned except at the expiry of a contract, when workers employed by a single company were allowed to take action over their own claims.
All solidarity strikes, political strikes and general strikes were to be outlawed. Defiance could earn jail terms, massive fines and possible confiscation of workers' homes and unions' assets.
Union anger squandered
New Zealand workers were up in arms. Many called for a massive union fight-back to "kill the bill". But the Council of Trade Unions (CTU), under president and leading Socialist Unity Party member Ken Douglas, argued for negotiations with the government to "change the bill".
During a heated television exchange, the Nationals' labour minister Bill Birch claimed the unions were distributing "propaganda and lies". Douglas challenged Birch to show any guarantee in the ECA that employers could not make workers worse off by slashing wages or sacking staff. Birch could not
answer.
A groundswell of opposition developed; industrial disputes erupted among factory workers, nurses, pulp and paper workers, shop employees and bus drivers. Teachers, health workers, civil servants and other usually restrained groups staged one-day strikes and led protest rallies. Large numbers of the unemployed also protested.
An estimated 300,000-500,000 NZ workers (around one in five adults) took to the streets in protest. Rank-and-file unionists started demanding general strike action from the CTU. At a Public Service Association conference, a resolution calling for a national stoppage was carried by 45,000 votes to just over 15,000 against.
Many union officials, particularly at the lower level of the union hierarchy, backed the call for a campaign for a general strike. But, Douglas and CTU leaders worked furiously behind the scenes to prevent moves towards a general strike. Under pressure from the CTU hierarchy, union leaderships either ignored or, in the case of the PSA, simply overturned rank-and-file resolutions demanding action.
The pressure from the CTU executive was demonstrated at the April 1991 CTU conference. Despite majority sentiment, the motion for a 24-hour general stoppage on April 30 was narrowly defeated on a vote — 250,122 against and 190,910 in favour.
The lengths to which CTU leaders went to quash moves towards a general strike were illustrated at an April 1991 30,000-strong rally in Auckland. The rally chairperson was Bill Andersen, CTU executive member and a leader of the Socialist Party of Aotearoa (which had split from the Socialist Unity Party a year earlier). Left-wing activists had asked Anderson if he would put a general strike motion and he declined. He also refused to allow anyone else to move such a motion. When the same activists tried to move a general strike motion from the stage, they were thrown off by CTU security.
The successful 11th hour moves by Douglas and the CTU leadership to fend off the mood for general strike action were about the only thing that prevented it from taking place. Defending the CTU's inaction, Douglas later had the gall to blame NZ workers who, he claimed, "would not have supported a general strike".
Seven years later, Douglas received the NZ Order of Merit. He referred to the "irony" of being a leading NZ "communist" receiving the NZ capitalist class's highest award. But there was no irony at all. The award was in recognition of the invaluable services he rendered to New Zealand capitalism.
Unions crippled
The arrogant National government chose May 1, 1991 — the international day of worker solidarity — to table the ECA in parliament, and it became law on May 15.
Some unions continued the fight; construction unions began a nation-wide three-day strike on May 15.
But once the ECA was in place, it began to cripple the NZ union movement. Membership figures nose-dived from 35% in 1991 to 17% in 1999. Job delegate structures were decimated. The construction, agriculture and mining industries became almost entirely de-unionised. The pay, conditions and rights of workers were savaged. Real wages fell. The elimination of overtime penalties saw up to $7000 wiped off the incomes of many already earning under $30,000 a year.
The ECA minimum wage was only $245 (A$174 in 1991) for a 40-hour week for those aged 20 or over. There was no minimum at all for those under 20. Between 1991 and 1999 the minimum wage increased by only 14% while inflation rose by 18%. In five years real wages for supermarket workers fell by 11% for those working Monday to Friday and 33% for those working weekends.
During the life of the ECA the number of workers on awards or collective agreements dropped from 700,000 to 400,000, 100,000 more people went onto benefits and the level of underemployment (part-time workers seeking full-time jobs) trebled. NZ treasury papers estimate that 90% of New Zealanders were worse off in 1996 than they were in 1981.
At various anti-ECA rallies, then Labour leader Mike Moore pledged to repeal the legislation if Labour was re-elected.
It was not until December 1999 that Labour finally regained office with the support of the left-wing Alliance. The newly-elected Labour PM Helen Clark spoke of a "new era" in labour relations.
In 2000, the hated ECA was replaced by the Employment Relations Act (ERA). Clark's "new era" did return some rights to unions; the ERA allowed workers to form collective agreements across sites and granted union organisers greater access to workplaces.
However, all but one of the National's bans on solidarity, political and general strikes were transferred into the ERA. The already harsh penalties for defying these laws were increased. The award system was not reinstated and it is still illegal to strike before the expiry of a contract.
Clark's government has lifted the minimum wage by 36%. The $9.50 (A$8.90) an hour equates to only $380 (A$356) for a 40-hour week. Real wages continue to stagnate. There is still a 20% wage gap between Australia and New Zealand.
Fourteen years later, workers in New Zealand are still suffering the effects of the National's anti-union laws, the CTU's refusal to call national strike action to stop these laws and Labour's refusal to totally repeal them.
NZ workers could not rely solely on the union leaderships or Labour politicians to "kill the bill", just as Australian workers cannot either. We need to start agitating for general strike action — with or without the backing of the ACTU leadership. Let's harness our collective strength. Strike committees of rank-and-file workers — both within and across unions and workplaces — can both pressure union leaders to call strike action and coordinate our own strike action if union leaders refuse.
Don't let New Zealand's 1991 become our 2005.
[Shane Bentley is a member of the Maritime Union of Australia and the Socialist Alliance.]
From Green Left Weekly, October 12, 2005.
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