Improving workers’ lives under a hostile government
William Bell-Purchas (he/him)
Over the last year, the National–Act–New Zealand First Government has transferred wealth and power away from workers and tenants and seemed disinterested in improving the lives of everyday New Zealanders. They’ve dedicated most of their attention to who gets to sit in the “Deputy Prime Minister” seat and get the most 6pm news headlines.
Some of the lowlights include:
Giving landlords a tax break of $2,900,000,000
Restarting no-cause evictions – allowing landlords to evict tenants without a reason
Introducing legislation to dishonestly redefine Te Tiriti
Restarting oil and gas exploration
Cutting funding for the healthy lunches in schools programme
Giving minimum wage workers a pay cut in real terms (accounting for inflation)
Weakening the bargaining rights of unions
Unemployment rising to nearly 5% – meaning 148,000 are unemployed
Implementing sanctions on those who are unemployed (while removing employment protections)
This is all very bleak. Mix in the Trump-Musk chaos in the United States, and it’s easy to want to tune it all out.
I’m going to make the case that even when the tides are heading in the wrong direction, significant progress can be made, and there is reason to be hopeful.
A story on how working people’s lives can be improved by community-led efforts can be found in the Living Wage Movement.
The Living Wage Movement began in New Zealand over a decade ago with the goal of improving the lives of our lowest-paid workers. It’s a coalition of community organisations (including students here on campus), faith groups, and unions. It is not politically aligned to any party. The focus is on asking employers to commit to paying the Living Wage, which is defined as “the income necessary to provide workers and their families with the basic necessities of life”. This rate is independently calculated on an annual basis to reflect the cost of living.
The Living Wage right now is $27.80, $4.65 higher than the minimum wage of $23.15. Over a full-time fortnight of work, that is a $370 difference.
To many, paying this rate seems like the right thing to do. However, it is rare that employers volunteer to increase their payroll bill.
This is where the Living Wage Movement comes in. By uniting multiple different communities with shared values around a single goal, it has been able to successfully campaign for employers to shift to a Living Wage.
Its success comes from its ability to demonstrate to decision makers the level of community support that exists for fair wages, and this is only possible because of the collective effort of hundreds of workers and volunteers who contribute to Living Wage campaigns. In her book, Lyndy McIntyre – who has been a crucial part of the Living Wage movement since its inception in New Zealand – explains that “the goal was to build power to exert pressure on employers from a strong and united community movement”.
Community groups, faith groups and unions have shown up in force, hosted central and local government election forums, and effectively organised to amass over 350 Living Wage Employers in New Zealand. One of the largest is Wellington City Council. According to McIntyre, it took “a determined and public campaign and six years of consistently demonstrating community support” to achieve this. As a result, all of WCC’s directly employed and contracted staff – from cleaners to recreation centre staff – are being paid a living wage as a minimum.
This campaign began under John Key’s National Government, where minimum wage increases were minimal. It proves that even when it’s difficult, it’s not just possible, but essential, that we work together to make progress.
The Living Wage Movement’s effort to lift workers’ wages is ongoing. Currently, there is a campaign being organised across the Wellington region calling on schools to pay a Living Wage.
Here at Te Herenga Waka, the campaign for a Living Wage began in 2015. As a student representative on the University’s Council, taking action on this has been a priority of mine. Progress was made at the September Council meeting where over 100 students, staff, and community members attended in support. Staff wellbeing has been given priority in the university’s strategy, and Council agreed that:
“as part of balancing matters of staff remuneration, financial sustainability, and recruitment and retention of talent, Council requests the Vice‐Chancellor and Te Hiwa to develop and implement plans for the long term enhancement of the universityʹs Manaakitanga toward all staff who work here (including contractors), across all relevant dimensions of fairness and equity, including but not limited to working towards paying wages at rates that are consistent with the concept of a living wage”
The Living Wage Movement is just one example of a cause that you can take part in to make a difference; a cause amongst the chaos. Working Students Wellington is a member organisation and club based here at Te Herenga Waka that any student can join.
There are all sorts of ways that you can take action and contribute to causes that make a big difference. Here are a few ideas:
Join a group, club, or organisation that contributes to a cause you care about, whether that’s workers’ rights, human rights, climate justice, or anything else.
If you work, join your union. Your union advocates for you in the workplace – it's unions that have fought for (and won) weekends, the 40-hour work week, and sick leave. Joining your union helps protect other workers in your industry as well as you.
Join and get involved with VUWSA. On campus, your student union is VUWSA, which advocates for you within the university and campaigns for students on a national level.
Make a submission to a piece of legislation. This can take under 5 minutes and have an immediate effect on our laws. Recently, the Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill received over 300,000 individual submissions.
Vote in this year’s local elections and next year’s general election. You can apply to enrol the moment you turn 17 at vote.nz (a year before you can even vote).
Views expressed in this article are the author’s and not reflective of any organisation.