Unions – Protecting Workers Interests
We are delighted to have an article written for us by Neil McGarvey from FANZP - a union which represented Air New Zealand Pilots and Flight Simulator Instructors. He gives us a balanced and interesting look into the role that unions play in aviation.
Over to you, Neil.
Neil McGarvey
It seems fitting that while writing an article on unions, I’m on holiday visiting relatives in Manchester in the north of England – the birthplace of the labour union movement.
It was during the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century that a rural and agrarian society transformed into one based on industrial production from textile mills, factories and mines. The large numbers of new workers streaming into the industrial cities of northern England demanded better pay and conditions, so organised themselves into the first National Unions which were legalised in 1824.
There were many decades of political and industrial upheaval before the union movement became firmly established and achieved lasting results for the millions of workers they represented. Many employees around the world still don’t have such representation and are fighting legal battles against large corporations, such as Amazon and Starbucks, to establish unions in their workplaces.
In present day New Zealand, we are very fortunate in the aviation space to have a number of strong unions and high membership rates for pilots, cabin crew, engineers and airport workers.
The union I belong to is the Federation of Air New Zealand Pilots (FANZP), of which I also have the privilege of being Secretary. We are a bespoke union that specialises in representing Air New Zealand Pilots and Flight Simulator Instructors. We have a respected record speaking on behalf of our members and successfully negotiating employment contracts to achieve the best terms and conditions for them.
As an organisation, we prefer practical negotiating policies ahead of confrontational tactics, so we build relationships with Air New Zealand management and use Interest Based Problem Solving techniques to reach agreement quickly and effectively.
The work carried out by generations of FANZP negotiators has resulted in robust Collective Agreements that set out terms and conditions for all the employees doing a certain type of work. For example, FANZP maintains three Collectives, one each for Jet pilots, Turboprop pilots and Flight Simulator Instructors. These are jealously guarded and one of a union’s key roles is to protect and enhance the Collective Agreements that cover their members.
A Collective usually has a three year timeframe, after which it expires. The Employment Relations Act states that 60 days before expiry, the union and the employer should enter negotiations to discuss any alterations that each party want to make to the terms and conditions. If negotiations go well, a revised Collective should be agreed before the expiry date of the old one. If agreement is not reached, negotiations continue, and legal advice is sometimes sought to progress matters. There is a possibility that industrial action of various types may be required, but Air New Zealand pilots have not needed to resort to these tactics for many years.
FANZP’s philosophy (and most of the aviation unions) is that industrial action is to be avoided, if at all possible, as it hurts both employer and employees.
The high number of union members in the aviation industry has resulted in a “unionised culture” where employers are used to dealing with unions that represent workers, rather than dealing with individual employees themselves.
Collective Agreements are negotiated on a regular basis, unions are consulted about business decisions and frequent meetings between unions and management take place to iron out any issues that arise. In practice, this culture means that if an individual has an issue where they believe their employer hasn’t met the terms and conditions of their Collective in some way, they can ask their union to advocate on their behalf.
These issues arise fairly frequently in a large company with thousands of employees like Air New Zealand. Just in the last couple of months FANZP has successfully resolved issues for a member who was not paid correctly while on Sick Leave, another who had trouble claiming on an income protection insurance policy and a third who had a complaint laid against them in the workplace.
It’s very comforting, as an employee, to know that you have support and advice available from experienced experts in your union. As well, at FANZP, pilots are encouraged from the outset of their Air New Zealand career to get involved with union work and join the Committee or be on working groups.
We believe that the strong union culture in New Zealand aviation is extremely valuable to all pilots, so as union leaders we work hard to preserve and enhance it.
