Labour
and the Greens teamed up to address a union meeting in
Auckland on Thursday morning, pitching their policies to
workers.
Hundreds of Workers First Union members
arrived by bus to the stop-work meeting at Go Media
Stadium.
The crowd included retail workers,
supermarket distribution centre workers, bus, truck, and
ambulance drivers, and workers from food manufacturing and
the pharmaceutical industry.
Labour was represented by
leader Chris Hipkins, Mt Roskill candidate Michael Wood (a
former workplace relations and safety minister), and MP
Camilla Belich (who before entering Parliament worked as an
employment lawyer).
The Greens sent a large
contingent, including co-leaders Marama Davidson and Chlöe
Swarbrick, Green MPs Ricardo Menéndez March, Lawrence
Xu-Nan, and Steve Abel, and candidates Adam Powell and
Yasmine Serhal.
Workers
First Union general secretary Dennis Maga challenged the
politicians to name the laws they would repeal, and the
protections they would restore.
“Will you put workers
rights and safety into law?” he asked.
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Hipkins
confirmed Labour would re-instate pay equity laws within the
first 100 days, and ensure the minimum wage increased by at
least the level of inflation.
“Your
pay increases have not been keeping up with increasing
costs, and that is a direct consequence of the decisions
that this government has taken,” he told
attendees.
Davidson pointed to the Greens’ policy of
automatic union membership.
“It will ensure collective
bargaining power and strength to make sure that you have the
work pay conditions and protections that you will
deserve.”
Swarbrick
urged the union members to vote, with a chant of “vote them
out” ending the meeting.
According to 1 News, the
Labour and Green leaders were seen catching up ahead of the
meeting, and discussed Thursday morning’s RNZ-Reid Research
poll.
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