Interestingly for me, Unite at my workplace tried to throw their weight around, recruiting people for their massive pay increase attempt during the rugby world cup next year. They had already been arguing with us for the past two years that the performance of the hotel shouldn't affect our pay rates and now they want to change that view when it's convenient. No chance. THey also pushed for a massive cap on all non-union pay. Get lost on that, I get paid for performance and I get paid well.
Back in 1997, I invited the Service and Food workers union on to the Skycity Site.Robin Arthur was our union organiser at the time. As the years passed, SFWU had many organisers come and go. It was widely felt that the SFWU was stealing our money by collecting our members fee's and not providing us with the service we required. Since I brought that union onto the site, I felt I was responsible of only 2 choices to rectify the damage that they had caused to myself, my friends and peers at Skycity. The first choice was to smash and de unionise the site or take choice number two - get into a partnership with another union that supported and respected our right to make our own decisions. We the workers at SkyCity believe no union owns the right to say we belong in there sector or union. The SFWU claims that UNITE union poached their members, we left because we were highly dissatisfied with their bulling tactic's and broken promises. The SFWU are the smallest union on site. SkyCity workers have no hang ups with each other. Its the CTU and SFWU that can't move forward and will forever pull UNITE down for this. I am the Co President for SEA-UNITE ( SkyCity Employees Association ) and have been since pulling away from the SFWU. Currently have over 850 members. Our goal is to tell our story out there, and grow to be the biggest union on a single site of more than a 1000 members this year. Unite Union and Matt Mc Carten has been the most successfull thing that has happened for workers up and down the countryside. The only way I can sum this change is - Nothing changes if Nothing changes. Advice for all the other Unions - Never take your members for granted.