Unite Union (Unite) is a

trade union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

. It represents a number of workers across various industries, and was the sponsor of the campaign directed towards improving working conditions for fast food workers in the country, in addition to representing other hospitality and retail workers. Unite is affiliated with the

New Zealand Council of Trade Unions The New Zealand Council of Trade Unions (NZCTU or CTU; ) is a national trade union centre in New Zealand. The NZCTU represents 360,000 workers, and is the largest democratic organisation in New Zealand. History It was formed in 1987 by the m ...

History

In mid 2003 a small group of trade unionists and activists attempted to "organise the unorganised". It began to focus on unionising workers predominantly from fast food, cinema and security. In response to the Key Government's amendment to the Employment Relations Act 2000 allowing small businesses greater liberty to 'hire and fire' workers in the first 90 days, Unite established the 'Rat Patrol' to

name and shame To name and shame is to "publicly say that a person, group or business has done something wrong". It is a form of public shaming used to rally popular opinion against and, in turn, discourage certain kinds of behavior or enterprises. The pract ...

companies that abuse the legislation. Matt McCarten's United Support Services, a company he formed to supply support services to the union, was placed into

liquidation Liquidation is the process in accounting by which a Company (law), company is brought to an end. The assets and property of the business are redistributed. When a firm has been liquidated, it is sometimes referred to as :wikt:wind up#Noun, w ...

on 17 June 2011 owing $92,000 in unpaid taxes to the IRD. In 2015 Unite engaged in th
End Zero Hours
campaign, primarily aimed at securing minimum guarantees of hours in union collective employment agreements. The campaign was ultimately successful with the National Government passing legislation outlawing "zero hour contracts". It was the inspiration for the former Australian UNITE Union, which was founded in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

in 2003.

References

External links

Unite Union official site
New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Trade unions in New Zealand General unions {{NewZealand-trade-union-stub