Logie Jan: Employment Relations (Secret Ballot for Strikes) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Logie Jan: Employment Relations (Secret Ballot for Strikes) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 21 March 2012. Volume:678;Page:1198. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
JAN LOGIE (Green) 
: 
 I am pleased tonight to speak on behalf of Denise Roche our industrial relations spokesperson. The Green Party opposes this Employment Relations (Secret Ballot for Strikes) Amendment Bill in its entirety. In standing to speak for the Greens on this bill I would like to recognise the work that has been done by my colleagues Keith Locke and Dave Clendon. When this bill went through its first reading the Greens supported it but Keith Locke did outline concerns with the bill and Dave Clendon outlined them again last time this bill was in the House. Those concerns have not been addressed and now we have more concerns about the bill so we will be opposing it. To be honest I cannot believe this House has wasted so much time and resources—staff time politicians’ time time in the House and at the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee when more useful debates could have been had—over an amendment bill that in effect is a solution looking for a problem. 
I am not sure what on earth possessed my esteemed colleague Tau Henare to develop such a bill when it is so completely and utterly unnecessary. It is some time since my esteemed colleague was a union official for the Clerical Workers Union and undoubtedly times have moved on in the last two decades. Modern unions are now democratic. Members rather than union officials make the decisions around settling negotiations and also about how the whole union is run. From having been a member of a union for many many years I can vouch for this. Unions— 
Scott Simpson 
: Ah a conflict of interest. 
JAN LOGIE 
: I am not an organiser—a member. Unions are incorporated societies. They are required to act in an openly transparent and democratic fashion. Many unions already have rules that include the requirement for secret ballots on industrial disputes. What is the point in legislating to ensure a current practice becomes a current practice? 
The decision to take industrial action is not one that unions or their members ever take lightly. For the union if the strike is not widely supported or if there is anything dodgy about the vote on it it is likely to lose members. Unlike the industrial relations environment that existed when my esteemed colleague Tau Henare was a union organiser in the early 1980s union membership is now voluntary. Frankly in an environment of shrinking union membership in the private sector particularly no union with sane leadership is going to take the risk of acting undemocratically. From the workers’ perspective the decision to strike is also never made lightly. Strike action means loss of pay and in an increasingly desperate job market—thanks to this Government—it is a huge risk to take strike action because of the potential ongoing damage to the employment relationship. Strike action is an action of last resort and aside from health and safety reasons it is used only when negotiations around the collective employment agreements have not been settled. 
I join Labour in expressing my satisfaction in seeing the Ports of Auckland go back into negotiations which we have seen at the end of a process of striking. It is really the only weapon in the struggle that can sometimes result from the imbalance of power between workers and the boss and it is never undertaken on a whim or with a dodgy vote. Some of my colleagues recently spent the weekend at the picket with the Maritime Union members and their families at the Ports of Auckland. You know they have been negotiating since September last year. Despite offering to make significant changes to provide more flexibility including a 12-hour shift option for some workers they have been stalled by management’s demands for more and more and more flexibility. These workers all 300 or so of them had a vote. 
Recently I joined the striking workers at Elderslea Rest Home in Upper Hutt. You know I know it takes a lot to get nurses and rest home workers to strike because they care for their elderly clients and they do not want to jeopardise their well-being. Fifteen hundred of them went off the job at Oceania rest homes all over the country. These workers are asking for a cost of living pay claim of around 3 percent with back-pay. The company which is controlled by Australian equity firm Macquarie Global Infrastructure Funds and currently is spending millions on new facilities is offering them 1 percent over 3 years and wants to cut overtime. These workers have been negotiating for 8 months and 600 of those workers are on $13.61 an hour just above the minimum wage caring for some of our most vulnerable people. This is not about workers being greedy or unions being unscrupulous. It is about a decent living wage and it is also about employer bullying. It is about employers seeking to bust the unions and achieve full flexibility also known as casualisation of the workforce. 
I note that this bill does not address the issue of whether the employer should have a secret ballot or even a transparent voting process before they decide to lock out workers. It is fine for the workers but not for the bosses. Seven-hundred and sixty-two AFFCO meatworkers in provincial towns—in Moerewa Manawatu AFFCO Imlay in Wanganui Horotiu and Wairoa—have been locked out of their jobs. Like the Ports of Auckland workers they have been fending off the bosses’ claims for more and more flexibility around rostering. The meatworkers and Talley’s AFFCO management have been negotiating their employment agreement for 18 months. The lockout is an employer tactic to get them to agree. Why is there no bill requiring companies to hold a secret ballot before locking out workers? We will not be voting for this bill. This bill does nothing to address bad-faith bargaining. In fact it is dangerous. It opens a loophole for employers to litigate unions over ballots. This bill does not serve unions which are the only collective voice for many people it does not serve industrial democracy and it does not serve workers.