Veis Story

Vei is 21. She lives in Auckland, and works nights in a cheese factory. She is a member of the Dairy Workers Union.

My Job

At the factory, the department I work for is Mozzarella. We make the cheese that gets exported to countries like Japan.

On our shift theres about 15 workers. We grate the cheese through big machines and pack it as well.

We have quotas of how many pallets we have to fill. On the night shift we have to fill 66 pallets. If we do more we get a bonus, but weve never seen it!

Working nights can be a bummer sometimes. Its a 12 hour shift with 3 smoko breaks, three nights on, four nights off.

Its cruisy if the machines are running sweet as, but half the time they break down. Theres hardly a night when something doesnt go wrong.

The jobs crap, but the moneys good. The supervisors tell us "dont laugh, dont gossip", but when theyre not around its fun and we can laugh and joke.

My Union

I joined the union on my first night. Id come from my other job knowing about the union, so I just asked for the delegate, and I found out everyones in the union.

In my other job I got recruited by my friend Sela, she made me join! Id just come from school and didnt know anything about the union.

I went to training and I learnt a lot about my rights that I didnt even know existed.

Its important for young people to join the union to know what our rights are. The bosses will pick on us if we come in with a lack of knowledge about what our rights are, theyll just walk all over us.

I work in another job thats not unionised and I really see the difference. I used to get called in to work and only get two hours. Then I went on a course and people told me I had to get paid a minimum of three hours.

Just little things like that, you see theyve been trying to rip you off. When you show you know your rights they back off and treat you with more respect.

I get a really good feeling that I know my rights and I can just walk in and feel really confident about myself.

I want to be more involved in the union, to have the knowledge and pass it on. I know theres a lot of people out there who have the same problems. I want to share my experiences and just start with the small things.