Latest / Best of Business / Richard Wagstaff: NZCTU President on the results from the latest Mood of the Workforce survey

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Richard Wagstaff: NZCTU President on the results from the latest Mood of the Workforce survey · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News TALKSEDB. Follow this
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  Speaker 1: and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio, Brian Bridge.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: Working people are concerned about insecurity and work, housing health.
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  Speaker 2: This according to the latest Mood of the Workforce survey.
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  Speaker 2: This is the CTU, the Council of Trade Unions. They've
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  Speaker 2: pold nineteen hundred of their own members in response to
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  Speaker 2: the heralds Mood of the Boardroom survey that looks to
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  Speaker 2: talk to CEOs. Respondents were in support of a capital
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: gains tax. No surprise there, I suppose for unions, and
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  Speaker 2: they were concerned with the direction the government is taking
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  Speaker 2: us in. The CTU President Richard Wagstaff.
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  Speaker 3: Is with me. Good evening, Good evening, Ryan.
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  Speaker 2: Anything surprised you about these results?
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  Speaker 3: I think what was surprising was just how much people
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  Speaker 3: have shifted in the last twelve months. This survey has
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  Speaker 3: done every year at the beginning of the year, and
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  Speaker 3: you know, we know it's been pretty hard for working
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  Speaker 3: people for quite some time now with the cost of living,
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  Speaker 3: cross and other issues, rent and so forth. And a
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  Speaker 3: year ago, of course that experienced a month of this
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  Speaker 3: government and now they've experienced just over a year of
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  Speaker 3: this government. And while there was not a lot of
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  Speaker 3: optimism given the changes to the fair pay agreements, ninety
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  Speaker 3: day trials and you know saying it's going to be tough,
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  Speaker 3: what you see coming through this survey is much more
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  Speaker 3: an experience of being unemployed or being a cure in
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  Speaker 3: terms of your not just your job, but your housing
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  Speaker 3: and your health.
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  Speaker 2: As you said in the introduction, so does this include
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  Speaker 2: people who've lost their jobs? Because would you You wouldn't
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  Speaker 2: be a member anymore, would you if you lost your job?
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  Speaker 3: This is a survey taken from our database. Just as
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  Speaker 3: you say, mood of the boardroom and business confidence, These
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  Speaker 3: are basically right people who are on our database. Many
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  Speaker 3: of them may have had a job earlier, no longer have.
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  Speaker 3: What's also come through it, of course, is people who
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  Speaker 3: have remained at work are talking about their jobs getting
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  Speaker 3: bigger because there's fewer people to do them, and also
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  Speaker 3: being left there when they've had colleagues who have left.
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  Speaker 3: And here some of the respondents have been pretty difficult
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  Speaker 3: to read because I've talked about that sense of not
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  Speaker 3: wanting to sort of raise is shoes or raisor shoes
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  Speaker 3: either at work or in their accommodation because they feel
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  Speaker 3: so insecure and they know that there's there, there's plenty
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  Speaker 3: of people out there who want their job or their house.
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  Speaker 3: If they don't, it's time to hit up. It's tough,
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  Speaker 3: it's a a vulnerable position.
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  Speaker 2: And interestingly, Winston Peters did quite well in this survey, well.
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  Speaker 3: He did relative to last time. That's right. He came
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  Speaker 3: up a bit, but which was interesting to see. But
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  Speaker 3: unfortunately for the government, nor that the Prime Minister, the
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  Speaker 3: Minister of Growth or Finance, nor the Minister of Workplace
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  Speaker 3: Relations or the leader of the party did very well
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  Speaker 3: at all. They were hammered, really the vast majority of
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  Speaker 3: people thinking they're not doing a good job. And I
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  Speaker 3: think you know what came through is the sense of
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  Speaker 3: they're not working for us. They seem to be accommodating
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  Speaker 3: the interests of big business, of lobbyists, of tobacco companies,
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  Speaker 3: of doing tax reform for people who aren't us, and
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  Speaker 3: what about us. We're working people and we need a better,
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  Speaker 3: we need a better a fair system here and we're
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  Speaker 3: not getting it.
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  Speaker 2: Is there disappointment in labor for the you know, first
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  Speaker 2: of all, what they did to the economy to get
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  Speaker 2: us here in the first place, but also their move
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  Speaker 2: away from workers towards I didn't even know what they
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  Speaker 2: became towards the end there, but there was a sense
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  Speaker 2: that they had a kind of lost touch with the worker.
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  Speaker 3: Well, this survey is about, you know, how people are
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  Speaker 3: feeling right now with the current government. I think that
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  Speaker 3: this survey is a wake up call for all politicians.
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  Speaker 3: Working people think their bread and butter issues are important.
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  Speaker 3: They want good jobs, they want employment security, they want
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  Speaker 3: a future, and really we agree strongly with them, of course,
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  Speaker 3: the Trade Union Council Council trade unions, but we want
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  Speaker 3: to see that too. We want to see political parties
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  Speaker 3: owning the problems of working people and understanding that they
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  Speaker 3: are very crucial in terms of the future of this
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  Speaker 3: country and they need to be They need to be understood.
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  Speaker 3: And you know, insecurity is not good for anybody. We
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  Speaker 3: need people to be confident about the future and investing
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  Speaker 3: in it, not leaving town or leaving country for greenape.
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  Speaker 2: Richard, thank you for that. Richard Wagstaff, the Council of
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  Speaker 2: Trained Union's president, with us on the mood of the Workforce,
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  Speaker 2: which was set up to as a kind of counter
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  Speaker 2: to the mood of the boardroom from The Herald.
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