DO STRIKES ACTUALLY WORK?
New Zealand’s best-known strikes all ended in defeat for the workers. So what are the prospects for the strikers of today? Leith Huffadine reports.
On Tuesday, bus drivers were striking in Auckland. The nursing union has threatened strikes in July that could have widespread effects on the healthcare system.
Cinema workers have been striking this week, and Wendy’s workers went on strike last week.
It seems that strike action is all around us, but how effective is it?
In the early 20th century, we had the world’s most effective system for settling disputes between employers and employees, according to Te Ara, The Encyclopedia of New Zealand.
Some early examples of striking included Ma¯ ori timber workers stopping because they wanted to be paid in money or gunpowder, instead of food, in
1821; workers refusing to work more than an eight-hour day in
1840; and schoolboys on strike against too much homework in the 1880s.
But the first nationwide strike was in 1890, when workers at ports around the country took industrial action, initially in support of Australian unionists, according to Te Ara.
The year 1912 saw a six-month strike by gold miners in Waihi, eastern Waikato. On ‘‘Black Tuesday’’, striker Fred Evans was killed when a crowd of strike-breakers and police stormed the miners’ hall.
Evans is one of two people to have died during strike action in New Zealand.
A year later, in 1913, about
16,000 port and mine workers went on strike for six weeks. The government brought in strike-breakers, and there was fighting in the streets.
Industrial action by waterfront workers in
1951 saw the biggest strike in New Zealand history. It lasted 151 days, from February to July, and at its peak 22,000 watersiders and unionists were off work.
Strikes and lockouts were at their peak in the 1960s and 1970s, according to Te Ara.
A lockout is essentially the employer’s version of a strike. It is undertaken to try to make employees accept terms of employment or comply with employer demands. Employers may also lock out workers on health and safety grounds.
What about striking now?
In 2017, there were six work stoppages involving 421 employees, losing 370 persondays of work, according to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE).
In 2016, those figures were three stoppages, 430 workers involved, 195 days lost and, in 2015, five stoppages, 1845 workers and 392.5 days lost.
There are a lot fewer strikes now than in the mid-2000s. For example, 2005 saw 60 stoppages involving 17,752 workers, 30,028 days of work gone and an estimated $4.8 million (at the time) of wages and salaries lost.
Going on strike is a ‘‘legitimate action used by parties to advance their bargaining aims’’, according to the Government’s Employment New Zealand website.
Possibly contrary to what many people think, workers don’t have to stop work completely to be on strike.
However, there is a range of criteria that have to be met for a strike to be legal. If they aren’t met, a court injunction can be sought to stop a strike.
The Employment NZ site also says ‘‘employers can’t discriminate against employees for taking part in a lawful strike’’. For a strike to go ahead, a union must hold a secret ballot. All members can participate, and a majority must be in favour for it to go ahead.
An employer doesn’t have to pay workers during a strike. If it’s a partial strike, there are conditions under which employers can reduce pay. They can suspend a striking worker and not pay them, but it doesn’t break their service.
Notice must be given to allow for planning and negotiation before a strike is about to go ahead.
But are strikes successful?
The waterfront strike in 1951 eventually saw the wharfies admit defeat.
The outcome was the same in 1913, when the United Federation of Labour also admitted defeat.
The 1912 miners’ strike also fizzled out.
So some of the nation’s most notorious strikes weren’t a success.
But Council of Trade Unions president Richard Wagstaff feels that strikes are, in general, effective.
‘‘Counting successes, well, always industrial action in my memory results in a collective agreement being achieved eventually.
‘‘It serves a purpose of employers realising how serious employees are about the bargaining they are in, and it serves a purpose of letting them know that they can’t unilaterally just establish people’s conditions of work – it’s meant to be a twoway street.
‘‘In current disputes, or as you see now with the NZNO [NZ Nurses Organisation], the threat of industrial action has certainly led to a higher offer. Whether it’s sufficient or not, time will tell.
‘‘My view is that it often does lead to a better offer, and so that is the success of collective bargaining.
‘‘It’s one of those things that when you’re in bargaining everyone knows that this could break down and end in industrial action, so it does apply discipline to people to get on