NZ Union movement slightly surprised Brooke Van Velden is here to destroy them

The Beehive doors are shut to the CTU

It can not be much of a surprise that a relatively inexperienced ACT MP, handed the workplace relations portfolio, does not want to entertain the country’s biggest union in her office.

But it still astonishes the head of that union, CTU president Richard Wagstaff.

After all, he has met regularly with ministers of all political persuasions to enable them to get a deeper understanding of what was going on with the country’s workers.

After just one initial meeting, in November 2023, not only has he become persona non grata at the Beehive, but the “unions” Brooke van Velden has seen are fringe organisations, with few members.

“The first thing we said to her was ‘good you are meeting with us, can we set up a regular meeting?’, thinking that was pretty uncontroversial, given that that’s been the pattern with people in her role for decades,” Wagstaff told The Detail.

“She actually said ‘no’, she couldn’t confirm a regular meeting date. Since then, we have asked to meet her half a dozen or more times, I’ve lost count, and I’ve given up really, because every time she says ‘no’.”

That was despite “numerous issues coming through her office relating to working people and their rights”.

The CTU is the country’s largest democratic organisation, representing about 360,000 workers.

Wagstaff says this lack of direct communication comes at a time of rising unemployment.

“I’m talking fair pay agreements, 90-day trials, holidays act, minimum wages, contractor law reform, personal grievances, pay equity…. it goes on. There’s been a lot of decisions she has taken and not taken, a lot of things that are very important to us.

“And we are pretty astounded that she hasn’t taken the time to actually get the voice of working people in her considerations.”

I think the NZCTU have just woken up to the fact that this hard right Government means them harm.

The Union movement has stalled.

Craig Renney’s late entry as a critical voice to eviscerate National’s nonsense budget in the last election was urgent and necessary, which led us all to ask,  Where the bloody hell has this CTU been?

Since the passing of Helen Kelly the CTU has drifted without any real purpose or direction as woke identity politics seemed to become more important to the Wellington clique than you know, worker rights.

The breath of fresh air CTU Economist Craig Renney injected in the last month of the election with research that undermined the economic credibility of National’s deeply flawed tax policy was what the Left should have been doing for the last 3 years! The Left have walked away from economics and focused on the low hanging fruit of identity politics which only divides using pure temple politics rather than Broadchurch Solidarity. The common ground between people is their class, not their identity and Craig Renney is the blueprint for how the Left wins in 2026.

The CTU need to either form around Wagstaff, Ansell-Bridges or Renney as the ‘face’ of the CTU to lead the resistance against this far right racist Government, or they all appear as a united front, but they need to work out a clear leadership role now because you know, the Right are smashing us weekly right now and the CTU should, you know, probably be against that if they want to be politically relevant again.

It’s not all retreat, E Tu have spearheaded the Union’s lawfare campaign against this Government’s public service slash and burn agenda.

Their enormous win against TVNZ over their staff sacking debacle is now being followed at the Ministry of Education with the PSA…

PSA considering more legal action over Govt job cuts after win

The Public Service Association is considering more legal action over Government job cuts after it won its recent dispute against the Ministry of Education.

…that’s why I doubt the the Health Minister will manage to sack 3000 jobs while hiding behind a Commissioner without the Unions fighting back.

Pay parity legal action has been the main go to for the Union movement in NZ, it’s easier than actually growing Union Membership and going on strike, which is fine and dandy until it’s not.

The sheer scale of the hard Right’s agenda however demands a response greater than, ‘we will take you to Court’.

The policy required to win the 2026 election is going to need to be more than, ‘we will roll back all National’s roll backs’.

It must be far more visionary and strong than that.

We need to see more democratic infrastructure, not less.

We need to see Universal Student Membership back at all tertiary institutes and all migrant workers should be immediately enrolled with the Union.

Fair Pay Agreements were a great start, but we are beyond the need for great starts into paradigm shifting leaps.

Chloe speaks of the need for a mass movement, well the Union movement needs to be part of that.

Specific Universal Union membership policies and wider Fair Pay Agreements could take Union membership back to 50% of the entire working population.

We need a response that recognises the need to grow members immediately to counter the political actions of the Billionaire Donor Class.

We need a clear template of what we are promising the people and build the political muscle to force the issue.

A 10 day nationwide strike would achieve more in real terms for the people than a hundred years of elections!

The climate meltdown is here, the plutocrats have taken over your democracy and the economy is plunging while you face another 5.4% rise in cost of living.

A 10 day national strike would force our concerns to the front of the Government’s agenda rather than the corporate donors and Real Estate Pimps who currently own them.

Māori showed us on budget day what the power of strike can do.

It’s time for all those bing impacted by this anti-Māori, anti-Treaty, anti-environment, anti-worker, anti-public service and anti-renter agenda to come together if this hard right racist climate denying beneficiary bashing Government is to be blunted to one term.

A 10 day nationwide strike would achieve more in real terms for the people than a dozen elections!

We have to re-establish the egalitarian mission by promoting policy that directly challenges the capitalist status quo in meaningful ways.

Without vision, the Union movement is lost.

There are 4 magical pillars of the NZ economic ‘success’

1 – Stealing Indigenous land and never paying back the full value.

2 – Selling basic milk powder to China

3 – Selling each other houses and pretending that makes us rich.

4 – Addiction to a low wage economy.

The migration exploitation rules are garbage because NZ loves exploiting migrant labour!

We are addicted to it.

We say locals are too lazy for these jobs when really what we say is locals won’t allow themselves to be exploited as easily as migrant workers.

There is of course a solution here.

Universals Union membership for every migrant worker crossing the border.

That way domestic workers know they are not competing against exploited labour.

That way migrant labour can’t be exploited without the Union stepping.

That way the migrant worker and domestic worker are all protected by the solidarity of the Union.

We don’t want a solution to exploited labour, that’s why Universal Union Membership for migrant workers is ignored and non-solutions like this are promoted.

This Wednesday the CTU are holding hui all over the country to speak out against this Governments attack on worker rights.

We need economic resilience, we need community resilience, we need radical reform to strengthen sustainability.

We need more Left Universalism.

We need to lift the tax yoke off working people, beneficiaries and the middle classes and we need to put it on the Banks, the Corporations, the Billionaires and the mega wealthy.

We need more Democratic Infrastructure, not less!

Why do we need these things?

Because the climate is shutting down and we face a bleak future where Billions will suffer and die thanks to catastrophic climate change.

This change will be forced upon us whether we like it or not.

This demands more connections, more bonds that bind us together to emotionally, socially,  economically and politically survive what is coming.

Māori communalism is going to teach us a lot.

Here are some thoughts on what the Union movement should be considering:

The Right to Strike: A 10 day nation wide national strike would achieve more for working people than a dozen elections. We don’t have the right to strike in this country for God’s sakes, stand on your feet or live on your knees!

Iwi backed new Supermarket: Bring in a 3rd player into the supermarket duopoly that is Iwi backed with a focus on cheap prices for consumers, best prices for producers and high wages and work conditions for workers. Take 30% of the Supermarket Industry by force (allowed under the Commerce Commission powers) and use this as the backbone for a new food security system.

Mārae Civil Defence: Use Marae as the backbone of Civil Defence throughout NZ with resources based there alongside new building grants to strengthen those Marae.

Ministry of Green Works: We need to be able to build our own sustainable infrastructure, we need social housing builds and we need vast upgrading of the existing infrastructure to be adaptable to climate change.

New Mental Health First Responders: A whole new branch of first responders to deal specifically with mental health issues to talk people down and seek help rather than calling then Police and arresting people.

Artist Benefit: As part of a degrowth Capitalism model, pay Artists to make public art, use that art as a means to deal with the wondrous grief caused by the destruction of the planet.

Māori Parliament: An indigenous Parliament that amplifies Māori political voices.

Universal Student Union: Allow Student Unions to be the incubators for tomorrows politicians and stop students simply being cash cows for corporate education.

Universal Migrant Union: Stop migrant worker exploitation with universal student membership.

Retirement Village Unions: These scumbag retirement villages abuse their elderly and sick clients, universal Retirement Village Unions would stop them being exploited.

Pensioner Unions: Give our elderly a voice!

Sugar Tax to fund free dental.

Financial Transaction Tax to target speculators

Free Public Transport to lower emissions and make an impact on the wallets of the poor.

Wealth Tax aimed at the super wealthy

Inheritance Tax only realised after death

First $20 000 tax free for everyone

Lower GST to 10% to take the tax burden off the poor

Nationalise Early Childhood Education to lower the cost for working mothers and fathers

The Right to Strike to generate more Union muscle

Without vision the Union Movement is dead.

Solidarity Comrades.

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