UNITED WE STAND?

Non union members  at Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi won't be getting a pay rise next month. The Tertiary Education Union thinks this is something to celebrate.

Next month union members at Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi will be voting on a  two percent pay rise. Members have been  advised to accept the deal by the officials  of the Tertiary Education Union and the Tertiary  Institutes   Allied  Staff Association. It will duly be rubber stamped.

According to TEU organiser Jane Adams  the deal demonstrates the whare wananga  values its staff. 

It's curious that Adams thinks her role is  also to be a spin doctor for the employer, because  it can't value its  staff that much since it took over four  months of negotiation to squeeze out a two percent pay rise.

And only union members will get the two percent. It won't be passed on to non-union members. They get nothing.

The TEU seems to think that this is something to shout about. On its website  it declares ' 2%, only for union members, at Awanuiaangi'. Evidently  TEU officialdom aren't concerned about the economic situation of non-union workers.

This sort of approach only serves to  help divide the workplace and does nothing to encourage worker solidarity.  It is also hardly going to assist in winning the hearts and minds of non union workers.

The immediate task is  surely  to help make every worker feel that they are the union, and that there is something very concrete to be won or lost.