Rising above – MUNZ Women

Maranga mai, wahine ma – Rising above!

Maranga mai, wahine ma – Rising above! was this year’s theme for our CTU Women’s Conference held in July 2021. More than 170 union women attended the Conference hosted at the Michael Fowler Centre in Wellington.

What an amazing turnout it was for the 2-day event, considering all the challenges this world has faced with a global pandemic, several lockdowns and sadly hundreds even thousands of job losses.

The Conference kicked off with a beautiful welcome as always to the delegates attending from all around the country and different unions. This was my third CTU Women’s conference and just like previous conferences we were not disappointed, even with the absence of international speakers.

There were a number of key note speakers, including NZCTU National Secretary Melissa Ansell-Bridges who spoke on Fair Pay Agreements. Melissa was a well-spoken woman with a deep belief in the power of working people uniting together to create social change.

Attending from the Government was Hon. Jan Tinetti currently Minister of Internal Affairs, Minister for Women and Associate Minister of Education. I was intrigued not so much by what she had to say but more so by the questions and challenges laid down by the delegates regarding housing, health and education issues.

I think Jan has a lot of work ahead of her if she wants to fulfil her belief that the Government has a role to play in ensuring all New Zealanders have access to the services they need to help them be the best they can be.

Rebecca Macfie is a journalist of 32 years experience, and the author of Tragedy at Pike River Mine: How and Why 29 Men Died and her most recent book, a biography of union leader Helen Kelly. Rebecca believed that if Helen was alive today, she would see our housing crisis as a worker’s crisis and be campaigning for change.

I am pretty sure most of the 170 plus women in attendance would agree with me that the most engaging and exciting speaker of all was Jennifer Ward-Lealand. Jennifer has worked extensively in theatre, film, television, musical and radio for 40 years. Jennifer is also a trained intimacy co-ordinator for stage and screen. As President of Equity NZ, she has received a number of awards, and was recently honoured as Kiwibank New Zealander of the year 2020. The way Jennifer spoke in Maori and English had us captivated from start to finish.

Her belief to change mindsets in her industry can be heard and seen through all the achievements, titles and accolades she has gained. She is truly the definition of a Woman of Influence, an award she has also received for arts and culture.

Dr Elizabeth Kerekere was the final key note speaker before heading into the youth component of the conference on day two. She has mentored over 50 youth leaders and is a fierce voice for young people. A life-long grassroots activist, she is community-based, focused on Kaupapa Maori and Te Tiriti issues for 40 years.

Elizabeth works on local and national projects across mental health, suicide, violence prevention and youth development, and has represented Rainbow and Indigenous human rights issues nationally and internationally.

Following the speakers, the rest of the day was fun filled with craftivism where all tables were set up with different craft materials and activities, then to end it all we had a group photo.

I want to thank all those that organised this wonderful event from the CTU Women’s Committee to all the workers who work at the venue.

Special thanks to Annette McCauley for her assistance in organising our apparel, well done mate, we outdid ourselves again given that we were noticed and envied by all other unions.

To all my wonderful comrades who made the choice to join me on this journey, it was great to have met you all. My mission since becoming a MUNZ Delegate and attending this conference is that more women and youth from our union are invited, attend and have the opportunities that I have had too.

Lastly thanks again to all of you for donating to the Lower Hutt Women’s Refuge, the ladies were super stoked and overwhelmed by our generosity, and then further stoked with a cash donation from the Wellington Branch. This is what it means for me to RISE ABOVE!

Maritime Women update

By Fiona Mansell National Women’s Representative

First and foremost, big thanks and acknowledgements to Jim (Wellington Branch Secretary), Craig (National Secretary) and all other branches around NZ in regards to educating, empowering and encouraging MUNZ delegates.

Without your constant support and funding, we would not have the awesome opportunities that we have been given today. Thank you all so much!

New Zealand Council of Trade Unions (NZCTU) Delegates Training

I attended an Advanced Training Course run by CTU in Auckland with several other delegates from MUNZ. Although the course content was in my opinion constructed for teachers and educators it was awesome to be able to mix and mingle with delegates from other unions and get their perspective on organising in their work places.

It was apparent that MUNZ is a very different union in regards to the way we train our delegates as it is mostly on the job training rather than a classroom setting.

One thing I did come away with is that Employment Relations Education Leave (EREL) is something we need to take advantage of more since we have a certain amount each year per delegate. We need to have more delegates that are interested in any of these courses to attend and be part of these training sessions.

Rail, Maritime and Transport Union (RMTU) Women’s Forum

It was my pleasure and honour to attend as a guest speaker at this event with my comrade Annette McCauley.

Big thanks to RMTU National Women’s Rep Rebecca Hauck for extending the invitation to us. Her purpose and goals are the same as mine as National Women’s Rep. That is networking all over the country within our unions and with others, to build/form strong relationships, support other members, and encourage delegate training and education through courses and conferences.

After all the introductions it was interesting to hear of the rocky relationship between MUNZ and RMTU. In my opinion it was a great discussion as most of the people who spoke up were brutally honest – the kind of conversations I love to be part of.

More discussions were had with me talking about moving on from the past as we are in interesting times with our employers. I also shared how after almost 4 years MUNZ fought for a better pregnancy policy for seafarers. I gave a brief report on how disgraceful the previous policy was and now our seafarers have much better terms and conditions.

My promotion of this year’s CTU Women’s Biennial Conference sparked a big interest within the audience as there were quite a few new members at this forum who had never heard of this conference.

I was proud to speak about increasing our delegation from four back in 2017 to eight in 2019 to a whopping 24 delegates from all over New Zealand this year. The largest delegation of MUNZ women ever to attend this particular conference!

It was great to see some of the RMTU delegates there for both days. This is what networking is all about. This is growth! May we continue on with building relationships and in some cases bridges between both unions.

Eighteen MUNZ youth members from around the country attended the CTU Stand up Conference in Christchurch in August. National Youth Rep Shanaya Hunter says it was a great experience for younger members to meet one another and share their experiences from our seafarers and waterfront workers. The highlight was a social function put on by MUNZ to get together and network. “We’d just like to say a huge thanks to our Union for making this possible”, says Shanaya. Photos thanks to National Youth Reps Shanaya Hunter and Matt Hayward.

Branch contacts

Auckland Local 13

Secretary: Russell Mayn Mobile: 021 760 886 Email: russell.mayn@munz.org.nz

Assistant Secretary: Grant Williams Mobile: 021 457 170 Email: grant.williams@munz.org.nz

President: Hector Thorpe Mobile: 027 777 7163 Email: hector.thorpe@munz.org.nz

Whangarei

Contact Auckland

Mount Maunganui – Tauranga

Secretary: Selwyn Russell Mobile: 027 4782 308 Email: selwyn.russell@munz.org.nz

Organizer: Leanne Jackson Mobile: 021 652 885 Email: leanne.jackson@munz.org.nz

Napier

Secretary: Greg Primrose Mobile: 021 028 23167 Email: Greg.Primrose@munz.org.nz

New Plymouth

Secretary: Josef Zaloum Mobile: 022 062 9049

Wellington

Secretary: Jim King Mobile: 020 483 6262 Email: jim.king@munz.org.nz

Assistant Secretary: Fiona Mansell Mobile: 022 302 3010

Nelson

Secretary: Dean McNamara Mobile: 021 773 485 Email: nelson@munz.org.nz

Lyttelton Local 43

Secretary: Gary Horan Mobile: 027 432 9620 Email: gary.horan@munz.org.nz

Timaru

President: Shona Low Mobile: 027 327 1156 Email: shona90814@gmail.com

Port Chalmers Dunedin Local 10

Secretary: Josh Greer Mobile: 027 348 2692 Email: local10munz@xtra.co.nz

Bluff

Secretary: Ray Fife Mobile: 027 4475317 Email: ray.fife@munz.org.nz