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14 June, 2006
Led by ICEM affiliate Engineering, Printing & Manufacturing Union (EPMU), New Zealand’s labour movement began weekly pickets on 2 June against proposed legislation in which employers could fire workers with impunity during the first 90 days of their employment.
The EPMU established pickets outside the electoral office of bill sponsor Wayne Mapp in Takapuna on that day. Further protests, planned for every Friday morning, will happen in Auckland and at selected targets as seen fit. A mass rally is slated for Whangerei on 21 June, and the campaign to block the amendment to the Employment Relations Act will culminate with a march and rally on Parliament in Auckland on 20 July.
The legislation, if passed, would also remove all grievance rights for workers during their first 90 days of employment. The bill passed a first reading on Parliament with a narrow 63-58 vote on 15 March 2006 when Mapp’s National Party was joined by MPs from four other political parties: New Zealand First, ACT, United Future, and the Maori Party, in which three of four MPs voted against workers’ interests. The governing Labour Party and the Green Party are standing with trade unions in opposing the measure.