Oral Blog Entry - Diploma Lecture1 (Unions in NZ)

This lecture was given by Sarah Hardman who is not only a lecturer but also ASTE branch chairperson on 3rd April.

First of all, she started her lecture by several questions. Then she told us what a union is. A union is workers organized into a voluntary association to further their mutual with respect to wages, hours, working conditions and other matters of interest to the workers. And unions are voluntary and have traditionally negotiated with employers about pay rates, hours of work and working condition and others.

Secondly, she gave us some information about unions. For example, there are 330,000 New Zealanders joining a union, which 51.5% are women. If you are a union member, you can choose the union leader. Self-employee can not join a union. You can go on strike if collective agreement has expired when you are negotiating a new CA.

Finally, she talked about the reason why we need a union. Because we need fair pay, fair working conditions, safe and healthy workplace, a voice for working people and equality of opportunity.

By the way, if you want to know more information about unions, please click here.