Photo: Aotearoa New Zealand Proletarian
“5000 senior doctors walk off the job in unprecedented 24-hour strike,” RNZ headline.
Today, workers from all sectors united against attacks on workers’ rights.
For many like the 5000 senior doctors and medical staff, it is the breaking point. It isn’t just doctors who are understaffed, under-resourced, and fleeing to work overseas — it is a coordinated attack on all workers, on all fronts.
Across all sectors, unionised workers attended stop-work meetings because of the volume of cuts and incoming barriers to unionisation — making even Australia more appealing to working-class people.
When workers’ rights are under attack — stand up, fight back
The media like to make it out that these struggles are isolated from each other. That somehow doctors, nurses, teachers, industrial staff, and hospitality workers are fighting individual battles that aren't linked to pay inequity or dismissal of Te Tiriti.
Pay equity, collective agreements, and honouring Te Tiriti o Witangi are all fundamental to the rights of workers, and they continue to be overlooked.
But it isn’t that nurses just need more funding or better pay, or that once we have collective agreements it will all be okay — it’s that these would provide much-needed temporary relief for those who carry society.
We are not just individuals; we are a collective, and none of us are free from exploitation until all of us are free.
While the Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety refuses to meet with unions, people are dying.
Every week, two people are killed at work and a further 15-18 die from problems as a consequence of their work.
Every 15 minutes someone is forced off work due to a workplace injury.
Successive governments have refused to adequately fund WorkSafe, support unions, or prevent these from occurring.
The use of engineered stone is currently under scrutiny due to its lasting impacts on those working with it, but nothing is being done.
To keep a system in place that is consistently putting the lives and rights of working people second to the interests of profit is inexcusable.
While the previous Labour government’s protections for workers are being scrapped, it’s important to remember that they were never truly ‘safe’ to begin with.
The reversal of workers’ rights and the imported culture war are not mistakes or systemic flaws: it is how the system was designed to function.
Those in power benefit from a divided working class with minimal class unity.
All of our rights are at the mercy of the capitalist class — of which the overwhelming majority of our politicians are part of. They will protect their own interests, which directly conflict with ours.
While fighting for incremental and temporary relief for working people, we can not forget the necessity to push for an entire system change — and we know we can do it. The way we united against the Treaty Principles Bill is a testament to this fact.
We are the 90%, and we have the numbers to make the change we want to see. Organise, and join your local union.