Undercurrents

Undercurrents Ep. #6: Are the unions back?

Ollie Neas speaks to Council of Trade Unions President Sandra Grey and union organiser Justine Sachs at a recent event in Wellington.

Listen to the latest episode of Public Interest's fortnightly current affairs show, Undercurrents.

Since the coalition government took office in 2023, New Zealand has seen the most significant rollback of workers' rights in decades. Fair Pay Agreements have been scrapped, pay equity laws weakened, health and safety protections carved out, and employment rights rolled back.

At the same time, we are witnessing something of a resurgence in union activity. Last year's mega-strike saw more than 100,000 workers take to the streets in one of the largest industrial mobilisations in modern New Zealand history.

So are we witnessing the beginning of a genuine union revival? Or is this a blip in a longer term story of union decline?

In this special live edition of Undercurrents, recorded in Wellington in partnership with the Fabian Society, Ollie Neas is joined by New Zealand Council of Trade Unions President Sandra Grey and union organiser Justine Sachs to discuss the state and future of organised labour in Aotearoa.

Together they explore the coalition government's programme of workplace reform, the resurgence of industrial action, why union membership declined after the neoliberal reforms of the 1980s and 1990s, the relationship between unions and parliamentary politics, and what it would take to rebuild a workers' movement capable of transforming New Zealand.

Listen to the conversation below and subscribe to Public Interest for more discussions making sense of politics and power in Aotearoa.

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Listen to the latest episode of Public Interest's fortnightly current affairs show, Undercurrents.

Read more

Fifteen years after Pike River, New Zealand is dismantling the reforms it inspired

What the government's conservation U-turn really means

The $129 billion question: unpacking the extraordinary new Rich List

"Labour is reckoning with that history": Max Harris on Rogernomics, flipping Tāmaki, and the election