How UNITE Took on the Fast Food Companies Over Zero Hour Contracts and Won!
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- Published on Thursday, 21 May 2015 22:15
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A Socialist Project e-bulletin .... No. 1120 .... May 22, 2015
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How UNITE Took on the Fast Food Companies Over Zero Hour Contracts and Won!
Mike Treen
Workers in the fast food industry in New Zealand scored a spectacular victory over what has been dubbed "zero hour contracts" during a collective agreement bargaining round over the course of March and April this year. The campaign played out over the national media as well as on picket lines. The victory was seen by many observers as the product of a determined fight by a valiant group of workers and their union, Unite. It was a morale boost for all working people after what has seemed like a period of retreat for working-class struggle in recent years.
Workers in the fast food industry have long identified "zero... hour contracts" as the central problem they face. These are contracts that don't guarantee any hours per week, meanwhile workers are expected to work any shifts rostered within the workers’ ‘availability’. Managers have power to use and abuse the rostering system to reward and punish, without any real means of holding them to account.
This year, all the collective agreements with the major fast food companies (McDonald's, Burger King, Restaurant Brands) expired on March 31. We were already in dispute with Wendy's, as their agreement remains unresolved from last year. Unite Union was determined to end the system of zero hours and get guaranteed hours included in the new collective agreements. We had no illusions that this was going to be easy. We knew this would be a tough battle and we needed to prepare for that reality if we were to have a chance of success. At organizing meetings I would sometimes use a phrase that appealed: "If you want peace, prepare for war." I was told later it is taken from a Latin adage: "Si vis pacem, para bellum." Whoever coined the phrase, it is a wise strategy.
