The Engineering Printing and Manufacturing Union’s Work Rights Wage Drive stopped for a rally in Oamaru on Wednesday.
It attracted about 100 people and was one of 25 organised by the union and launched its work rights checklist.
The Oamaru Mail quoted EPMU national secretary Andrew Little as saying the wage drive and checklist were to ensure working people understood the importance of their rights.
Oamaru EPMU delegate Dave Snow told the workers to make their voices heard at this year’s election.
How they do that and how much they spend doing it will depend on the outcome of the National Party’s High Court challenge of the Electoral Commission’s decision to register the union, which is affiliated to the Labour Party and one of their largest donors, as a third party under the Electoral Finance Act.
Murray McCully explained in his weekly newsletter that:
Registration will entitle them to spend $120,000 attacking the National Party, which, due to the constraints of the EFA, will not be able to respond.
The High Court case looks solid. The EPMU is claiming not to be “involved in the administration of the affairs” of the Labour Party, within the meaning of the EFA. If the High Court upholds the registration, there will be immediate applications from several organisations that are not “involved in the administration of the affairs” of the National Party. Current favourites from mccully.co readers are the Citizens Opposed to the Political Activities of the EPMU, and the Not The Spencer Trust. So, either way, the High Court decision will produce an interesting outcome.
However, until the court decides the union, and any other groups whose ability to campaign rests on the decision, are left in limbo. That’s not conducive to democracy at any time and even less so when the election is a maximum of 14 weeks away.
