By Lloyd Burr
The outgoing Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) boss and former Labour Party president has quashed suggestions from the ACT Party that he supports voluntary student membership (VSM).
ACT’s tertiary education spokesperson Heather Roy said this morning that EPMU national secretary Andrew Little, who has always been against student unions becoming voluntary, endorsed VSM in his final speech.
Roy has a bill, which was originally Roger Douglas’, going through parliament at the moment that will make membership of tertiary students’ associations voluntary rather than compulsory.
Roy says there was “absolutely no equivocation in Andrew Little’s remarks; he said ‘I believe voluntary unionism - true freedom of association - gives the union movement much greater strength and a much greater moral authority.’ This is completely at odds with actions of the Labour Party who are tripping over themselves trying to keep membership of student associations compulsory”.
Mr Little says his comments were in regards to trade unions only and cannot be applied to students’ associations.
Little says “trade unions are completely different in character compared with student unions. Student unions are more akin to local authorities than trade unions”.
“Students’ associations support services on the ground that all students can use. Their function is very different”.
Mr Little says he doesn’t support VSM at all. He says Roy has taken his comments out of context and is "being cheeky to garner support for her bill".
New Zealand Union of Students’ Associations president David Do says Roy’s comments don’t surprise him and are just part of ACT and National’s plan to bring down students and their associations.
“Students oppose this bill overwhelmingly. Of the 4800 submissions made to the bill, 98 percent opposed it. No one wants this bill to go through,” he says.
Roy says “membership of trade unions has been voluntary since 1991 and New Zealand has not looked back since. It is an embarrassment that students still do not have the same rights as other members of society”.
Mr Do also says you cannot compare trade unions with student unions because they operate in different ways.
The VSM bill, officially called the Education (Freedom of Association) Amendment Bill, was pulled out of the private member’s ballot in 2009 and is still going through parliament.
3 News