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Record Growth in New Zealand Union Membership

Posted to the IUF website 06-Nov-2006

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A recent survey of union membership in New Zealand shows that membership last year increased by 6.6% over 2004, with unions organizing over 23,000 new members. Union density now stands at 21.9%. Since the repeal of the anti-union Employment Contracts Act (which encouraged individual workplace contracts) in 2000, unions have organized over 70,000 new members - an overall rise of 23 percent.

According to Professor George Lafferty, Director of the Industrial Relations Centre at Victoria University which conducted the survey, "The high profile and very successful campaigns around wages have shown a more confident union movement."