What is a union?

A union is an organisation which brings together workers or students to fight for their collective interests. In a workplace this might mean fighting for better wages and conditions and on campus this might mean fighting for lower fees and better services for students.

When workers or students work together in a collective they have much improved bargaining power. The members of a union support each other so that we don’t have to face a problem or negotiate with the boss on our own. When workers stick together like this we have a much better chance of getting a better deal. The more union members the better the deal.

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Unite Union membership in New Zealand has more than doubled to nearly two thousand in Restaurant Brands stores after a union employment agreement was reached last week covering 3500 workers in Starbucks, KFC and Pizza Hut nationwide.

“The enormous surge in growth of membership reflects the workers support at the outcome of negotiations for a new union collective agreement,” said Unite National Secretary Matt McCarten.

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