First Union questions Labour Leader

Published in the Waikato Times

First Union took the chance to grill Labour leader David Cunliffe over future policies for workers when he appeared at a special meeting for sacked Hutton workers in Hamilton.

Cunliffe met with former Hutton workers at the First Union Office, to hear their problems around future job and labour market opportunities.

Cunliffe said unions needed a "friendly government" to improve workers' conditions.

"The Labour Party was formed out of unionists and workers. It's our party."

He said his mission was to get "good decent jobs for decent wages" and to reduce the gap between the rich and the poor.

He was asked by a unionist whether he planned to change the 90-day hire and fire rule which has caused difficulties for ex-Hutton workers who have been trying to find new and permanent employment.

Cunliffe said that there were some circumstances, where an employer wasn't sure about his new employee, where the trial period is beneficial but he would remove the 90-day period from being automatic.

"The 90-day hire and fire rule is being fired. And the reason for that is it's not right and it's not fair. It will still be possible under different circumstances to have some sort of probationary hire, but it's not 90-day automatic."

Asked about collective wage bargaining, Cunliffe said it was a two phase plan.

"Phase one is getting rid of that anti- worker legislation before Christmas and do a minimum wage rise. The medium- term plan is to change the rules of bargaining so that it is fairer for everybody, the opposite of the ECA [Economic Contracts Act]."

A lot of the unionists were worried about casual contracts, which gave no security of income for previous full time employees.

Cunliffe said casual contracts were one of the major changes in the last generation. He said it was important to prevent workers from losing benefits when a business changed hands.

On taxation, he said: "There's going to be a major programme of addressing what the geeks call 'avoidance', which is basically rich cats not paying tax and our kaupapa [policy] is everyone paying their fair share."

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