E tū

09/06/2026

We won't stand for attacks on our health and safety protections. Sign the petition today: https://www.together.org.nz/not_one_more_health_and_safety

08/06/2026

E tū Activist of the Year 2024 and home support worker Pam King was on the front page of the Sunday Star Times yesterday, talking about the realities of life as worker beyond retirement age who still needs to do physically demanding work to make ends meet.

“I’m not sleeping so well. Because I’m doing two jobs, I’m pretty overwhelmed," Pam told the Sunday Star Times. “Caregiving is pretty heavy going ... If I do a couple a day, I'm physically buggered by the end of the shift.”

It's in the context of worrying discussions about raising the retirement age. E tū members know that many jobs are hugely demanding, and the ability to retire or reduce hours at 65 is essential.

You can read the full (paywalled) article here: https://www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/361016832/tough-reality-working-past-65

04/06/2026

More bad news from the Budget - the Government snuck through a change to cancel a vital project in Taranaki to help workers and the local economy to properly plan for big changes in the energy industry. It might be one line in the bank statements for the Government, but for workers like Jesse it's the difference between a good plan for the future, or being left out in the cold.

Taranaki energy workers are disappointed and frustrated after the Government axed funding for Ara Ake, the New Plymouth centre set up to help the region move beyond oil and gas, a major cut buried in Budget 2026 with no announcement. Ara Ake’s funding of $6 million a year ends on 1 July. The cut o...

02/06/2026

Awesome to have Hon Dr Ayesha Verrall spend some time with our delegates at Level 4 delegate training last week, which focuses on the bigger picture of campaigning and political issues. With the Government announcing a Budget last week that does nothing to help workers and our families, we're working closely with Opposition MPs this year to ensure we get the change we need in November.

28/05/2026

Let this be the last Budget this Government delivers.

E tū, Aotearoa’s largest private sector union, says Budget 2026 keeps the care and support system in crisis and offers nothing to fix the wages and conditions driving workers out of the sector. The Budget banks a $400 million health underspend that came out of community and residential support se...

26/05/2026

Put the money back. The Government is sitting on a $400m underspend earmarked for community and residential care. Thursday's Budget will show whether it returns to the workforce that delivers care, or whether ministers pocket it to flatter the books. After tearing $13 billion out of pay equity last year, banking this money too would be a betrayal on top of a betrayal.

E tū is calling on the Government to use Thursday’s Budget to direct a $400m health underspend back into community and residential support services, rather than banking the money while care workers struggle on poverty wages. The Treasury’s latest interim financial statements, covering the nine ...

26/05/2026

Our home support workers need much more support than the government's small increase to their mileage payments. E tū delegate Mohit Kaushal spoke with RNZ about the realities for thousands of carers across the country.

It's not unusual for care worker Mohit Kaushal to drive 1000km a week.

21/05/2026

A year since we initiated bargaining with Resene, fighting for the Living Wage as a baseline in their collective agreement. The company are barely budging, but our members are staunch and know they're worth more than Resene has offered. A year with strikes, public meetings, community pickets, and a huge turn out of support from the locals and the Living Wage Movement - as Margaret says, we're not stopping until we win.

18/05/2026

For more than twenty years, family carers in Aotearoa have been fighting to be recognised for the work they do. Two parents took their case all the way through the courts. They each care for a disabled adult child, around the clock. They argued they should be treated as employees of the Government, entitled to basic rights like the minimum wage, holiday pay, and protection from unfair treatment.

In December last year, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled in their favour. After seven years of legal battles, family carers finally had a decision the Government couldn't ignore.

The Government is choosing to ignore it anyway. This week, Minister Louise Upston announced a bill that rewrites the rules so no other family carer can use the Supreme Court's reasoning to claim employee rights. Faced with a problem the courts identified, the Government's response isn't to fix it. It's to lock it in.

We've seen this playbook before. When the courts found Uber drivers were employees, the Government moved to change the law to make sure other gig workers couldn't claim the same. Workers win in court, Government rewrites the rules.

Family carers do incredibly hard work, and they do it out of love. They can also save huge amounts of money for the care and support system, because without family carers, many disabled people would need full-time residential care. Refusing to pay carers properly, and changing the law to keep refusing, is repugnant.

Disability Minister Louise Upston has revealed a bill that would reverse the Supreme Court’s December decision to recognise family carers as employees.

10/05/2026

We recently held an awesome training session in Auckland for cleaning delegates across lots of different employers. A key focus was building strong networks between our delegates - while they work for different companies at different sites, they face many of the same challenges and opportunities. The delegates also explored different ways of building power, raising confidence, and getting others involved - critical in this election year!