On the 8th June 2025 around 80 unionists of the Public Service Association (PSA), flanked by other supporters such as the E tū union and the Migrant Worker’s Association, descended upon the offices of Te Roopu Taurima, a kaupapa Māori residential and respite disability support provider. This was in response to what was described by PSA’s national secretary Fleur Fitzsimons as an “oppressive over-reaction designed to intimidate and bully” the 38 care workers who were suspended without pay for six weeks for low-level strike action, a lockout announced late at night on 6th June. The escalation by the organisation is an explosive turn in stalled negotiations between PSA and Te Roopu Taurima, despite arbitration by the Employment Relations Authority (ERA). This escalation now leaves the predominantly Māori, Pasifika, and migrant workers in financial disarray. However on 9th June due to the solidarity rally and public support, if car honks in response to the “Toot 4 support” PSA placards are an indication, Te Roopu Taurima backed down, and withdrew the suspension of the workers, returning to negotiations with the PSA.
At the heart of the dispute were the employment conditions that have become lightning rods in New Zealand’s industrial landscape. The PSA claims the provider is pushing to introduce anti-worker clauses, including restrictions on secondary employment and, disastrously, the widespread use of 90-day trial periods, as well as keeping wages in line with inflation.
Before the lockout, union members had voted for low-level industrial action, which included actions such as not taking calls during hours they are not paid for, as well as taking their unpaid lunch breaks. The provider’s response was the immediate suspension of all 38 Kaitaataki (team leaders) and other staff involved. The union had taken this type of strike action previously, last December, with the trust retaliating with a similar lockout on much-needed overtime hours by both the workers and the people in their care.
The demand to implement 90-day trials for all new staff connects this localised dispute to a broader national debate. First introduced by the fifth National government in 2009 for businesses under 20 employees and expanded to the poor, disadvantaged large corporations in 2011, the policy allows for dismissals without any reasons given within the first three months of employment, as well as prohibiting workers from contesting it in court. After being restricted back to businesses with fewer than 20 employees back in 2018, the current coalition government reinstated the trial periods for all employers in late 2023. The stated reasons for the bill have been for capitalists to have flexibility and see if the worker is a “good fit” for the organisation. However, unions have consistently argued, based on years of case data, that this policy strips workers of fundamental rights and creates a climate of fear.
This aggressive employer retaliation echoes some of New Zealand’s most brutal industrial history: the infamous 1951 Waterfront Lockout saw the state side with employers, shutting out 22,000 workers for 151 days in a definitive effort to break a powerful union using the military as scab labour, and even as recently as as the 2012 Ports of Auckland lockout saw similar tactics as management attempted to de-unionise its workforce. These historical events underscore the profound power imbalances that the capitalist class has over their workers, and the state’s support of capitalists, or, in the best cases, indifference.
For Te Roopu Taurima, the lockout backfired. On June 9th, public outrage and the spectre of escalating strikes forced management to retreat, reinstating workers and resuming talks. Support was provided in the form of the solidarity picket, a vital cog in the union’s effort to withdraw the suspension by garnering public support and bringing attention to these workers’ struggles.
This situation laid bare the reality of the tripartite model of industrial relations, often championed by the Labour Party and even the Council of Trade Unions. The model holds that government, employers, and unions should negotiate as equal partners. The Employment Relations Authority is the new form of the arbitration courts of the late 1894 Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act (the ICA Act) which saw the state as a mediator for a middle ground between the capitalists and workers, banning strikes for all unions that used it. Even though PSA accepted the partial concession in line with the ERA recommendations, Te Roopu Taurima refused to do so. The fairytale that all parties, especially the bosses, would be willing to come to the table and come to an agreement was shattered, with the workers left out in the cold. That was until PSA organised the solidarity protest and forced their employer’s hand.
The success underscored a resurgent truth: collective action remains labour’s sharpest tool, just as workers learnt in the early 20th century in the shadow of the ICA Act. Strikes, not capitulation to bosses, are the best weapon for workers to advocate their interests. Workers’ solidarity is indeed stronger than the attacks on them, and a message to all capitalists that the workers will not sit idly by as their comrades are punished. We will stand together.
Photographs by Rudi Karmakar
