These are the main messages in the union-led campaign for an employment law that works.
Not being a union member is not the same as not wanting to be a union member
The Employment Relations Act is not strong enough to get over the refusal of some employers to bargain collectively.
"Good faith" is a good idea, but it doesn't mean much in real life. The law must be changed so that good faith means that employers actually have to DO certain things, like bargain with union members, and not pass on the results of bargaining to non-union members
Workers have a right to be protected if a business changes hands, the work they do is contracted out, or their employer loses a contract. Workers are valuable and their jobs are important to them.
Unions support the Employment Relations Law Reform Bill but say it is a set of moderate proposals that need to be strengthened to make a real difference in some areas, like good faith and freeloading.
Employer lobby groups are crying that the sky will fall in if the Bill is passed into law. This is rubbish. They said that about the Health and Safety in Employment Act and the Employment Relations Act, but the economy is strong and unemployment is low.
Unions also want a strong economy based on a highly-skilled workforce. But we say the benefits of a strong economy have to be shared around.
Nobody is going to be worse off if the law is improved. There will be a lot of people much better off because workers have more strength when they bargain together.
Good employers who value their staff and behave decently won't have any problems with the proposed changes in the Employment Relations Law Reform Bill.
The changes are needed to give ordinary working people with families the opportunity to get a fair deal at work.
The Bill makes modest amendments to a moderate law and business is "crying wolf" again.
The Bill is not the "big issue" facing business and New Zealand; the "big issue" is to achieve sustainable growth through jointly developed industry strategies which address skill and economic development, health and safety to build a higher skill, higher value, higher wage approach.
The employers who oppose the Bill are stuck in the 1990s low wage, anti-union mindset, and don't want to engage in co-operative joint strategies which will benefit all New Zealanders.
The Bill is needed to address real problems (illustrated by case studies) in order to make the ERA work and achieve its own objectives of good faith relationships and collective bargaining
