May Day in Hamilton

A collective response for workers' rights

Today is May 1, otherwise known as May Day, or International Workers' Day. The day has its origins in the global struggle for workers’ rights, notably the fight for an eight-hour workday in the late 19th century.

In Aotearoa New Zealand, May Day was first celebrated on 1 May 1900, when unionists and socialists gathered to express solidarity with the global workers' movement. Our public holiday (Labour Day) is recognised in October, but May Day remains an important expression of solidarity and the power of unions and workers’ rights.

This show of solidarity is even more important given, as the New Zealand Union Movement states:

This is the most anti-worker government that we’ve seen in decades, attacking our rights day after day and trying to divide us. But we won’t let them get away with it. We must fight back.

The coalition government has shown they are in the pockets of the rich, putting corporate interests over the interests of working people.

Through standing together and mobilising, we can demonstrate our power and ensure that this one-term government loses its legitimacy.

When our backs are against a wall, we fight back. And when we fight, we win.

Attacks on working people come on top of the relentless and ongoing attacks on Te Tiriti o Waitangi and Māori rights. The coalition is trying to divide us and are sowing the seeds of division.

Don’t let the buggers get you down! Join us across the motu on May Day to take a stand against the coalition.

I have been feeling a bit isolated of late, and particularly glum about the eroding of rights, social services, and core supports under the current government.

I had spent the previous day writing submissions on the Plain Language Act Repeal Bill (an especially petty and unnecessary piece of legislation that stops government and ministries from providing information in plain language), the Modernising health workforce regulation consultation (a thoroughly depressing document released by the Minister of Health, seeking to wind back public protections and stop registered health practitioners from upholding best practice), and pulling together a submission for the Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities that was focused on care and support for children with disabilities within the family environment. It is hard going, when faced with such an indifferent government seemingly hellbent on making life as miserable as possible for workers and families.

Today was a good day to attend a Union May Day event.

It was incredibly heartening to be with such a large and diverse group, out in the Hamilton drizzle. There were multiple unions represented; E tū (loved the speech about the rights for care workers), NZ CTU (Georgie Dansey reminding us of Labour’s workers’ union roots), Young Workers Resource Centre (Matariki Roche spoke so eloquently and well), as well as the NZNO, Workers First Union, TEC, and more - it reminded me that there are quite a lot of us pushing back and fighting for workers’ rights. I (we) are not alone in our struggles. This fight was fought before, and won, and we will win again.

Dr Kimberly Jackson and myself at a rather damp May Day event in Hamilton.

On the way to the Hamilton Lake I drove past the Hamilton hospital, past the striking doctors at the lights. Plenty of us honked in support. As Checkpoint notes, thousands of doctors walked off the job for 24 hours, many braving foul weather on picket lines around the country. Hamilton rarely makes the news on such days, but there was plenty of people on the picket line and plenty of support for our much-maligned medical staff. The Minister of Health so far has been woefully under-prepared and has seemingly failed to comprehend the level of support and understanding that the general public has for our hard-working doctors.

One only has to visit any hospital, or an ED, to see and understand the desperation, the under-staffing, and the failure to properly invest in health that this government has implemented - all while providing tax cuts to the wealthy (NZ$3.7billion), extra profits to landlords (NZ$2.9billion), and tax cuts for the tobacco industry (NZ$216million on heated tobacco product tax cuts; NZ$17billion loss of income from excise revenue).

proudly wearing this union badge the rest of the day - collective action means we are stronger together indeed

Today was a good day to attend a Union May Day event.