SOLOMON HUGHES recommends Sunjeev Sahota’s recent novel set in a trade union election campaign for its fresh approach to what unites and divides workers, but wishes the union backdrop was truer to life
JACINDA ARDERN’S Labour government in New Zealand has introduced legislation to enable industry-wide collective bargaining where unions can demonstrate worker support, or it passes a public interest test.
New Zealand’s Minister for Workplace Relations Michael Wood introduced the Fair Pay Agreement (FPA) Bill into Parliament, delivering on a Labour campaign pledge at the 2020 election.
New Zealand’s industrial relations system currently only permits collective bargaining at an enterprise level, between individual employers and unions.
The Bill addresses some exploitation but leaves trade unions heavily regulated, most workers without collective bargaining coverage, and fails to tackle the balance of power that enables constant mutation of bad practice, write KEITH EWING and LORD JOHN HENDY KC
It is only trade union power at work that will materially improve the lot of working people as a class but without sector-wide collective bargaining and a right to take sympathetic strike action, we are hamstrung in the fight to tilt back the balance of power, argues ADRIAN WEIR
TONY BURKE says an International Labour Conference next month will try for a new convention to protect often super-exploited workers providing services such as ride-hailing (taxis) such as Uber as well as fast food and package delivery



