Industry Sector Groups

“Ensuring the success of the food and beverage sector, including through greater skills development, quality work and security of employment, is hugely important for all New Zealanders,” CTU secretary Carol Beaumont said today, following the government’s response to the Food and Beverage Taskforce final report.

Moves to establish an industry wide response to the shipping industry have been welcomed by unions today.

Unions support the recommendations of the Food and Beverage Taskforce final report, released today, union spokesperson James Ritchie said.

Food industry unions affiliated to the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions and the Australian Council of Trade Unions are gathering in Wellington today and tomorrow in what is an historic first.

The Council of Trade Unions has welcomed a report from the Auckland City Council focusing on the creative industry contribution to economic development, but says there is a lack of detailed discussion on workforce issues.

A trans-Tasman conference of transport unions was under way in Wellington today with multi-national employer Toll Holdings in its sights.Ninety transport union leaders and delegates from Australian and New Zealand transport and maritime unions were meeting for the two-day strategy conference organised jointly by the Australian Council of Trade Unions and the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions.

"This is a watershed conference in the evolution of Australasian trade unionism," said CTU president Ross Wilson. "It's the first time that Australasian unions have combined to develop a strategy which focuses on a single multi-national employer."

Toll Holdings was an increasingly dominant player in the transport scene on both sides of the Tasman. It took a supply chain approach and was involved in rail, road and sea.

Minister of Transport Pete Hodgson opened the conference at 9.30am and presentations today would include an Australian university research report on how the Toll business model operated.

Claims of sweatshop conditions faced by crews on foreign vessels contracted to New Zealand companies exceeded unions' worst fears, Council of Trade Unions secretary Carol Beaumont said today.

Involving workers and their unions in an industry can make it more competitive, productive and profitable, according to a new study.

The study The Food and Beverage Sector: A Trade Union Perspective was carried out by researchers at the Centre for Labour and Trade Union Studies at the University of Waikato.

Some of the largest private sector unions will today sign an agreement to work together to improve the pay and conditions in one of the country's biggest export sectors, Council of Trade Unions secretary Carol Beaumont said today.

Workers from all parts of New Zealand's entertainment industry are joining forces to form an industry-wide coalition to represent their interests and advance their concerns, Council of Trade Unions secretary Carol Beaumont said today.