GUEST BLOG: Pat O’Dea – There is Power in the Union
There is Power in the Union
‘To decrease inflation, increase wage competition’.
The above, is the powerful Reserve Bank governor Adrian Orr’s recipe for fighting inflation. To beat inflation, Adrian Orr wants more unemployment.
Adrian Orr: Beating inflation will mean higher unemployment
Liam Dann New Zealand Herald, 27 Oct, 2022
…Orr warned that the interest rate hikes needed to beat inflation would mean higher unemployment.
“Returning to low inflation will, in the near-term, constrain employment growth and lead to a rise in unemployment,” he said.
In his fight against inflation Adrian Orr made no mention of fighting price inflation, in fact he took measures to raise the price of mortgages.
Rising prices and profits is “Growth” (a good thing)
According to Adrian Orr, Raising wages is “Inflationary” (a bad thing).
Wage inflation has always followed price inflation. Adrian Orr made his announcement about raising the cash rate, just as working families were struggling to keep up with the cost of living, as their wages fell behind price increases, Adrian Orr wanted to make sure that working people could not keep up with the cost of living. And its working!
More and more New Zealand working families can no longer afford to pay their mortgages.
More loan payments missed as Kiwis feel pinch of rising rates
Cameron Smith New Zealand Herald, 3 Apr, 2023 07:07 PM
Business owners and bankers can put up their prices and rates any time they want to, for any reason or for no reason. Their workers do not have the same power to put up their wages to compensate for higher prices, or to keep up with the resulting rise in the cost of living.
It’s an unequal power relationship: Employers and business owners have full freedom to put up their rates and prices. Their workers have very limited power to put up their wages to match.
Adrian Orr sought to increase that unequal power relationship through deliberately increasing unemployment and job competition.
Adrian Orr knows that working people are less likely to seek a wage increase if other workers are willing to work at the existing rate to keep their job, or even work at a lower rate to get a job.
It’s called a rat race for a reason
To maintain competitiveness employers are locked in a competitive race with other employers to the top. Workers on the other hand are locked in a competitive race with other workers to the bottom. Workers need to escape this rat race.
There is Power in a Union
Can’t pay your mortgage? can’t afford your groceries?
To overcome the competitive race to the bottom with other workers that keeps wages down, the solution for working people is not to compete with other workers, but to combine in unity with other workers.
In combination with other workers in a union, working people can effectively level the power imbalance between workers and employers to raise their wages to keep up with price inflation.
there is power in the union; Billy Bragg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwbzxemJZIc&ab_channel=DemocracyNow%21
Great pic
The power is in the people, Pat, not the Unions. Unions have an important role to play. but you need to widen your net if you or anyone wishes to match the power of the banking class (of which Adrian Orr is but one of many members of) and all other big money interests. And 2023 is not the year of the class war. human existence is a class war between big money and the people.
Power – is in the people. Wake up folks, we all are at war.
Unions have been described as the organised detachments of the working class.
In this country popular peoples movements like anti-nuclear and Maori land struggles like Bastion Pt. only got real traction when the unions gave them their backing. If the Auckland Trades Council had not put a Green Ban on Bastion Pt. the bulldozers would have moved the cops would have followed, the bulldozer and truck drivers refused to break the Green Ban, and even after the protesters were removed from the site no unionised workforce would agree to work on Muldoon’s proposed sub-division.
The same with nuclear ships, when the unions supported the protest movement by refusing to man the wharves and struck it pretty much ended nuclear ship visits.
Some say that the courts awarded the land back to Ngati Whatua, or that the Labour Government banned nuclear ship visits. But in both cases these formal arrangements were made after the fact and only acted to give formal recognition of what was already the situation on the ground.
One of the reasons why the antinuclear movement failed in Australia even though at the time it was as big and powerful as the anti-nuclear movement here, was that the Australian peace movement never got, (or even sought) the support from the trade union movement, relying solely on protest actions and civil disobedience. While these actions were important and courageous they were never enough to stop nuclear warships from entering Australian ports. New Zealand became nuclear free Australia didn’t now look where they are heading.
Want to make a change in society? ignore the unions and waste your whole life lobbying and protesting. Protesting and lobbying is important and can’t be done away with either, but alone they are not enough to force change on a reluctant establishment..
Want to stop climate change, Want to solve the cost of living crisis?
Then you need a powerful ally. As Billy Bragg sang;
“There is power in the factory, there is power in the land, there is power in the union.”
The Unions are captioned Pat….they are but a shadow of their former selves. When you talk about Nukes, you are talking about old times, good times in a way, but they are gone – long gone. Individuals and individual movements are leading the charge now days…Unions can and should get behind these movements and they will, if the uprising is significant enough for them to throw caution to the wind, but for now, forget about the Union movement as a leading force for change.
The people will lead the way, Pat, and with a bit of luck, the Unions may get in behind. Oh, what the ruling class have done to us all….