1st April UPDATE:


Voting has now closed. The Executive proposal was endorsed by 70.8% of those who cast a vote. The proposed fee changes will be implemented during April.

ORIGINAL POST

We’d like your support to increase membership fees for the union by between nothing and 50 cents a week for most for SEA-Unite members at SkyCity.

At the moment SEA-Unite members pay 1% of their weekly income with a minimum of $2 and maximum of $5.

We have avoided raising fees for nearly three years but we can no longer put it off. We know you struggle to pay your bills like all of us. However we really need your support to keep doing the job that we have to do for our members.

Last years AGM in November discussed fee increases and asked the new Executive to come up with a fee increase recommendation that would balance our books and then put it to a vote of all members.

Here are the three challenges we’ve had that made us come to you:

1. Delegates Training: The Government abolished our entire $80,000 annual budget (on average that’s $10 a member). But training our delegates is critical to helping our members so we now have to fund it out of your fees.

2.GST increase on fees: Since last October GST increased 2.5% from 12.5% to 15%.The average member pays $3 a week. 45 cents of that is GST.

3. Inflation: Over the last three years cumulative inflation has been 9.6% which means our costs have gone up by that amount.

The Executive met this year in February and spent considerable time discussing the options. It was unanimous that an increase in fees was necessary to maintain our services to members and meet our legal obligations. A lot of consideration was given to the fairest way to increase fees while minimising the impact on members. The increasing of restaurant and cinema member’s maximum fees into line with other members over two years was also a factor.

The proposal will make it easier for our lowest paid members while bringing the union’s income in to line with our costs. Even with the increase, Unite’s fees are still the lowest of any union in New Zealand.

The final recommendation is as follows and we are asking you to vote in SUPPORT of the recommendation:

Members on worksites where we do not have a Collective Agreement yet would continue to pay $2 per week.

The proposal, if approved, would begin the increases during April 2011. In the new SkyCity union agreement all wages rise by $3 for every $100 earned while the union fee will increase by only 10 cents per $100.

As a member of Unite you can have your say by going to this page.


You must vote by 5pm Thursday 31st March.

You will need to quote your Unite ID number which should have been sent to you by email, text or letter. If you do not have your Unite ID number please email support@unite.org.nz with your name, employer and the address of your workplace.

If you want more information or have any questions please feel free to contact us.

We look for forward to your continued support

Matt McCarten
Secretary
Phone: 0800 2 UNITE ext 17
Email: matt@unite.org.nz

Gerard Hehir
President
Phone: 0800 2 UNITE ext 34
Email: gerard@unite.org.nz


PS. We are conscious that many members voted against the new union agreement at SkyCity and accept we have a lot of work to do in many of the matters now delegated to working groups between management and the union.


PPS. We are delighted to announce that former SEA Unite founding co-president and SkyCity day-oner Liane Henry has agreed to take up the position of Union Organiser on a fulltime basis to support our members at SkyCity from April.