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From one day to the next, around 150 workers at a major printing factory found themselves facing notice of redundancy without any consultation.

Ovato, a major producer of magazines in New Zealand, announced that it would be closing the headset printing arm of its business in April at its only remaining plant in Auckland.

But within a day of the media covering the story and companies ringing in with offers of work, E tū set up a mini job expo with around 10 businesses to help Ovato members get into new roles in industries that need similar skills.

These jobs all offered E tū collective agreements and union conditions.

Longtime delegate Bart de Prinse, who was at the company on and off for more than 20 years, says the job expo offered roles and opportunities that would draw on members’ transferable skills.

The pop-up jobs expo was held in Ovato’s lunchroom

“Printing in itself is quite a varied market – there are quite a few different types of printing. There was a good variation of roles there.”

Bart says in the rush of the proposal, some Ovato staff didn’t know yet if they’d be staying to help with the closure or were no longer required.

“There are still a lot of people looking for answers which is sad, but hopefully that will be sorted.

“E tū has been quite supportive and the company cooperated. Everybody’s come together to help the staff as best they can.”

E tū members have won a pay rise of more than 9.2% over two years at Winstone Pulp.

Workers are delighted with their recent settlement and believe their strike on overtime played a big part in the win.

All union members will now see the pay-off of their organising and refusal to work overtime during the summer period.

E tū members, who mostly work in the maintenance team, also won an increased overtime rate of T1.7 for tradies.

Negotiation talks for their collective broke down just before Christmas when Winstone Pulp International (WPI) came back offering no increase in pay for members.

Members in E tū and FIRST Union voted unanimously for industrial action by way of an overtime ban.

The company then offered a one-off payment instead of a pay increase.

However, members didn’t think this was fair, after accepting only small pay rises over the years in order to help the company out.

Winstone Pulp delegate Dan Abernethy says after the strike things resolved faster than he thought they would.

E tū delegate Dan Abernethy

“We also got a lot more than I thought we would – we were actually quite surprised,” he says.

“This is one of the best settlements that we’ve ever had at WPI.”

By February, the parties were in mediation and the company came to the table with not a one- but a two-year deal, which Dan says has worked out well for members in the longer term.

“Reading between the lines, I think that basically management wanted to get the place up and running and back to normal as soon as possible.”

Dan says Covid has complicated what has been a tumultuous time for the pulp industry, as business is affected by many factors, including transport costs, power prices, and buyers paying on time.

Thousands of care and support workers around the country from multiple unions are standing up to preserve and increase the value of their pay and to ensure hard fought for training and progression gains are not lost.

Back in 2017, for the first time in their working lives, this group of 65,000 workers won historic pay increases and improvements thanks to the Care and Support (Pay Equity) Settlement.

Now, with the rates and pay scales that were set down in 2017 set to expire, E tū members and members from other unions are putting pressure on the Government to renew and renegotiate the settlement.

From December to February, hundreds took time to write their own personal messages to the Ministry of Health, explaining how the original settlement had improved their lives and how desperately they needed rates to continue to increase in the face of huge living costs.

Members have also been taking time to meet with their local MPs, after doing some lobbying training.

E tū Community Support Services Industry Council member, Ruby Sayer, is only 23, but has been working in aged care homes since she was just 15.

She says updating rates would make care and support a better career path for workers.

“I definitely support it 100%, because the last three years have been hellish with Covid 19. I want to set myself up for the future,” she says.

After months of waiting for an outcome, the Government has secured a mandate to start negotiations to renew the settlement by 1 July.

However, the proposed rates are likely to be lower than what workers have asked for in their claim, which is why care and support workers nationwide will need to be ready to mobilise for fair rates which respect their work.

Ruby says care work is a very physically and mentally draining job and continued pay increases are needed.

“It’s not always a nice industry to work in but if we were able to make it an industry that people want to work in then that’s great.

“I just think it’s going to change a whole lot of people’s lives if it goes ahead – it will really help so many people, including people we care for as well.”

That original settlement included continuing increases up to 1 July last year, but it expires on 30 June this year, with no guarantee the value will be maintained after that.

It was initiated by aged care worker Kristine Bartlett, who argued that workers had been underpaid for decades because most of them were women.

New Plymouth care and support members meet with local Labour MP Glen Bennett

Home support members have won increased mileage rates after subsidising the health system by paying their own work costs in the face of rising petrol prices.

Taking their case to the media, long-time delegate Tarsh Dixon told radio station RNZ about the impact that cost was having on workers.

She also created a petition that very quickly garnered nearly two thousand signatures.

District Health Boards announced in March that they would be topping up mileage rates from 58.5 cents to 63.5 cents per kilometre until the end of June, while petrol prices were unusually high. Other funders soon followed suit.

Tarsh says she’s really happy to see workers getting an interim mileage rate rise.

However, she says workers will be fighting for a further rise to reach the IRD’s 79 cents per kilometre rate after the temporary rate expires on 30 June.

Support workers submitted their feedback for the annual review which sets the mileage rates, highlighting how much they were spending to subsidise the health system.

“Union members taking collective action to achieve change needs to continue so that this issue of home support workers’ being disadvantaged and out of pocket by having to top up our petrol and car expenses is dealt with for good.”

The Living Wage rate of $22.75 is now the starting rate for members at DHBs across Aotearoa, with 8–13% pay increases for all workers during its three-year term.

E tū service workers have renewed their multi-employer collective agreement (MECA) with pay rises, enhanced sick leave, and a new allowance for those who train (buddy) new workmates.

Another key win has been a Te Tiriti clause, which recognises employer’s obligations to Māori workers, including giving powers to ensure that tikanga is upheld when decisions are made.

E tū delegate Leanne Terriss, who works as a cleaner at Hutt Valley DHB, says the new collective is “fantastic”.

“All the members love it, agree with it, and are happy with it. It was a really good win.”

Working groups have also been formed to look at ongoing issues, such as the laundering of uniforms, and must meet within one year of the collective’s ratification.

This win sets the standard for bargaining with the DHB contractors, which kicks off in May.

Thanks to growing union membership, Watershed workers have won the best conditions they’ve had in years.

From just two members to more than 30, membership at Watershed is on the rise and together they are improving their working lives.

Part of the Multi-Employer Collective Agreement for Cleaners last June, members say their relationship with the company is going from strength to strength.

Now they have hardly reported any issues with their pay, even during the Covid crisis.

Ninety-day trials have been scrapped and members have signed a memorandum to meet regularly with the company whenever issues crop up.

Delegate Teresa King says the workers cleaning at the South Auckland school where she works are much happier these days.

“They work together as a team, not like before when people would say ‘that’s not my job’.”

Teresa says she was originally reluctant to join the union and pay fees, but having seen the conditions at various schools, she sees how being a union member can help make work life better.

“If you don’t have the union, the school and the employer can do whatever they want to do.”

Two groups of workers at the country’s national museum will now be paid the Living Wage as their starting rate.

Te Papa’s front of house workers, who work in customer service, have secured the Living Wage with the ratification of their 2022 collective agreement.

After negotiations, the museum also agreed to fund the Living Wage rate for its contracted cleaners, who are employed by ISS, from 1 April.

Rehu Tui, who recently moved to Wellington and just joined E tū as an ISS cleaner, says the new wage rate will make a big difference after her income took a hit when she left her old job working as a hospital cleaner.

“We’re finally getting recognised and appreciated for all the hard work we put in.”

“People might not realise, but it’s cleaners who make sure that your office is nice when you come to work, your room’s nice, your cubicle’s nice.”

“Why can’t we be the change?” was delegate Sia Petelo’s thinking when she went into bargaining to fight for members’ claim to have menstrual leave introduced at her media company.

To her knowledge, Pacific Media Network or PMN is the first company and first media company in Aotearoa to offer leave for members for menstrual or menopause-related reasons.

Since December, E tū members at PMN now have 12 days of menstrual or menopause leave per year.

Sia, a radio host at Niu FM, says the idea of putting in a claim for menstrual leave came up after there was a kōrero about it on air and a PMN colleague raised the issue.

Before even taking the claim into bargaining, Sia says she and fellow union members did their own research by talking to Pacific GPs and meeting to discuss if menstrual leave was introduced, what it would look like and why it was important to them.

“As a Pacific community, we already have a lot of taboo and stigma around topics that we should talk about regularly within our own communities, especially because they’re important.

“So as a media company, I saw it as our collective is right: [talking about these issues] pretty much starts within our brand or our company.”

When Sia, as the sole delegate on the bargaining team, initially presented the claim, it was turned down.

Amid all the doubt and pressure, Sia says along the way she realised that she was going to have to push for change on behalf of her PMN sisters.

With encouragement from fellow union members and her organiser, she stepped back into the bargaining session, which was taking place via Zoom, and spoke from the heart.

“One of my points when I challenged their ‘no’ was, ‘okay, we are a Pacific media company, we are a media company, we use our platform to share great news, breaking news, bad news, any kind of news.

“‘We especially share news when there is groundbreaking change in the world, whether it be good or bad. Why are we not doing the same, and pretty much walking our talk?’”

Management went away to consider their response and then came back with a yes. Sia says she was emotional.

“I was in so much shock that I started crying. It was a cry of relief, but also I was crying because I was proud. I was crying because I couldn’t believe it, I was crying because I was like, ‘damn, the collective just did it.’

“As much as people keep coming and saying, ‘Well done, Sia’, ‘Well done, Sia’, it’s not well done, Sia.

“It’s well done PMN union collective, all thanks to the people that helped us behind the scenes, the E tū union. It is a collective effort.”

For the moment, the special leave is only available to union members, which Sia says she feels is fair for now.

However, all women at the company have benefitted, as the company now offers free sanitary products in the women’s bathroom.

Now fielding interview requests from as far afield as news stations in America about the ground-breaking leave policy, Sia says she also wants to get another message out.

“It definitely wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for the union, and so I only hope that that when people hear about this – and whether they agree with it or not – I hope that they look at the bigger picture that as a collective you can make change.”