NOVEMBER 5 2016 http://www.listener.co.nz 3
EDITORIAL
Helen Kelly 196 4 -
I
s there anything still to be said about Helen Kelly after all
the tributes paid to her? Perhaps surprisingly, yes.
Kelly, the former Council of Trade Unions president
who died of lung cancer aged 52, is likely to be remem-
bered primarily for her efforts on behalf of families
bereaved by the Pike River mine disaster and a series of
forestry deaths. Workplace safety – or more precisely, the
lack of it – was arguably the defining feature of her tenure.
Under her leadership, the CTU twice successfully prosecuted
forestry contractors over deaths on the job after the government
organisation charged with ensuring workplace safety sat on its
hands.
History also records Kelly’s bruis-
ing dispute with the film industry
over employment terms for
contractors, when she memorably
called Sir Peter Jackson, another
New Zealand hero, a “spoiled brat”
(for which she later apologised,
although without retreating from
her position).
But Kelly’s legacy is far more
substantial than that. Her most
signal achievement was that she
did more than anyone in living
memory to restore the mana and
credibility of the union move-
ment. She did this by combining
fierce commitment to the under-
dog – a trait inherited from her firebrand unionist father, Pat- with a natural warmth and empathy. On top of that, she was
media-savvy – not in the slick, artificial manner that comes from
being coached by media trainers, but by simply being open and
direct and by championing causes to which fair-minded New
Zealanders could easily relate.
Kelly inherited a movement still recovering from the ideol-
ogy wars of the 1980s and 90s, when unions faced a double
challenge: employment law reform imposed by an unfriendly
government, and an ugly internal schism over how to deal with
it. Hard-core unionists, including Kelly’s father, demanded a
much more militant response than the movement’s mainstream,
under the leadership of Pat Kelly’s former friend and colleague
Ken Douglas, was prepared to countenance. Some of the personal
scars never healed.
At the same time, the union movement had a giant image
problem as a result of the public’s bitter memories of bloody-
minded militancy during the 1970s and 80s. This created a
political climate conducive to National’s reforms, which were
intended to weaken a movement widely seen as having abused
its power.
It has been a long, hard road back to public acceptance for the
unions. In the meantime, a generation of workers has grown
up with no memory of the days when union membership was
compulsory, and with no understanding of union culture and the
protection that unionism can provide to vulnerable workers.M
ore than any of her predecessors, worthy as some of
them were, Kelly raised public awareness of the ways in
which good trade unions can improve workers’ lives. She
did this not by being dogmatic,
uncommunicative, belligerent or
stubbornly dismissive of the public
interest – all faults demonstrated
in abundance by an earlier gen-
eration of union leaders – but by
showing tough yet compassionate,
from-the-front leadership on such
issues as workplace safety, security
of employment and fair contracts.
Of all the politicians who paid
tribute to her in Parliament (and
where else but New Zealand
would MPs burst into a waiata in
honour of a trade unionist?), it was
Winston Peters who came closest
to nailing her legacy when he said
she put unionism on a new level.
Kelly would have been the first to admit there’s still a long way
to go. Despite unions being generally better organised than in
the old days, and more responsive to members’ needs (a con-
sequence of membership no longer being compulsory, which
means unions must now demonstrate their worth), membership
remains in steady decline.
From a total of more than half a million in 1991, the year
National’s Employment Contracts Act came into force, union
numbers had fallen to 360,000 – just 18.5% of all wage and
salary earners – at the end of 2014. More over, Australian fig-
ures suggest older workers are far more likely than their younger
workmates to belong to a union – a pattern probably replicated
here.
Would Kelly have been dispirited by those trends? Perhaps,
although they certainly wouldn’t have discouraged her. She
would have fought on with the same good-humoured equanim-
ity and pluck with which she faced death. lShe did more than anyone in living
memory to restore the mana and
credibility of the union movement.
KELLY FAMILY COLLECTION; HAGEN HOPKINSEmail your opinion to [email protected] or go to http://www.listener.co.nz/letter-to-the-editor
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