Journal Article

Popcorn, Pickets, and Brass-bands: Young Workers' Organising in the Cinema Industry 2003-2006

Grace Millar

2009

Overview

Since the Employment Contracts Act in 1991, the New Zealand union movement has become significantly smaller and less powerful. The service and retail sectors, where many workers get their first jobs, often have no union tradition. How to organise young workers and how to rebuild unionism in the service industries are two of the most important questions facing the New Zealand union movement. Movie theatres were one of the many service-based workplaces that were de-unionised in the period after 1991. In April 2002, Reading Cinemas opened a new movie theatre in Wellington. In November 2003, workers were paid at the New Zealand minimum wage rates of $8.50 for over 18 year olds and $6.80 for under 18 year olds, and there were no union members at Reading cinemas. Over the next few months, 95% of Reading workers joined the union, and a year later, these workers took industrial action, voted 100% for a strike, and won a collective agreement. This article will undertake a qualitative analysis of the unionisation at Reading and the dispute that followed and to explore what this workplace can add to our understanding of young workers in unions.

• Subject: Employees / Employment Contracts Act 1991 (NZ) (legislation) / Industrial relations / Labor unions / Labor unions and youth / Motion picture theaters / Organizing / Service industries workers