Unions, institutions, workers mark May Day with stoppage

Union members of all stripes made their voices heard on International Workers’ Day, or May Day, in Dunedin.

More than 100 people gathered for a paid stop-work meeting in the University of Otago’s Union Hall from 12.30pm to 1.30pm yesterday.

Among the organisations represented were Woolworths, Farmers, The Warehouse, Kmart, Mainland Poultry, Foodstuffs Distribution Centre, Otago Polytechnic and the Otago University Students’ Association.

Representatives for unions including the New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union, E Tu, First Union and the Tertiary Education Union (TEU) were also present.

At the meeting, TEU national secretary Amy Ross said there had been ‘‘nothing but a relentless onslaught’’ against working people in New Zealand over the past year.

‘‘Five days after May Day last year we saw the ram-raid on pay equity, the theft of women’s wages by this cowardly coalition.

‘‘There are three parties responsible for that and don’t let them forget it when we come to vote.’’