Aotearoa New Zealand is way off track according to workers who took part in the CTU's Mood of the Workforce Survey.
Off track because we see the super-rich getting even richer while basics like healthy food and a roof over your head are becoming harder to afford for most workers.[1]
Off track because everyone is working harder but feeling totally disrespected and undervalued.
Off track because the Government said it would address the cost-of-living crisis but we're worried about the car breaking down and not being able to get to work as we can't afford to get the car repaired.
Working people are struggling. It's grim out there.
Beyond stating the obvious – things are bad for workers - over 3,500 survey respondents in the Mood of the Workforce Survey[2] provided analysis of why things are so tough for workers and what we need to do to turn it around.
According to the respondents we have a Government that only supports the wealthy and spouts anti-worker sentiment. Added to this we have businesses cutting jobs, expecting more and more out of each worker, and refusing to listen to their workers.
"You have to work a lot harder/ be more productive, for a wage that doesn't keep up with inflation. It's like someone forgot we are people and deserve to be treated like people, not just an inconvenience to your profit."
And this means lots of workers find themselves taking second jobs or giving away their labour by working late:
"The cost of living costs with 3 dependents has made it very difficult and I've had to work extra hours in a 2nd job to make ends meet."
"Missed breaks every shift and finish late every shift."
And the high levels of unemployment mean many of us feel insecure and are holding onto bad jobs.[3]
"Work is hard to find and employers know they can easily replace you, they treat you badly and expect you to deal with it because work is so hard to come by."
While the reality we exist in is grim, the survey respondent made it clear that the problems could be addressed if we changed our economic direction.
They want a fairer distribution of profits, investment in public services and a fairer tax system which taxes the wealthy properly.
"Working people's rights are being eroded and there's way too big a gap between rich and poor nowadays. If the wealthy paid the right amount of tax instead of hiding it through finding loopholes, we'd have enough to pay for health, education and housing for everyone."
In essence, respondents were saying it's time to reject four decades of government policy and workplace cultures which put the mighty dollar and profits first.
Like me many of the survey respondents are tired of the rich eating all the pavlovas.
"We need to unify and ensure this is a one-term government. The erosion of working and non-working people's rights and living conditions has been extreme since this government took power, extreme, deliberate and unacceptable. It must stop."
What the survey respondents fear though is that their ideas will be dismissed by government and business leaders alike.
This rejection of voice is creating dislocation and dissatisfaction:[4]
"Serious decline in our voice at work leading to increasing levels of disengagement amongst my colleagues."
In the long run, these harms not only workers and their families, but overall social cohesion.
If we want better economic and social outcomes for Aotearoa and to 'fix the basics', we must listen to those who create the wealth and the social connections - workers.
And the workers are saying we need to be bold and put people first.
[1] The LCI (Labour cost index) shows that 68% of workers got a pay rise less than inflation (3%) last year.
[2] The respondents came from across many industries, two-thirds were union members and one-third were non-union respondents.
[3] This feeling of insecurity is also seen in the HLFS (Household Labour Force Survey) showing that an extra 135,000 workers felt there was a chance of losing their jobs since
[4] There has been a decline in trust of political institutions in New Zealand New Zealanders' trust in key institutions declines | Stats NZ. The last data available shows a drop to 4.9 in the mean out of 10 for trust in parliament.
