New Zealand Unions Challenge Labour's Grip on Power
In October 2025, over 100,000 workers in New Zealand walked off the job in what was described as the country's largest strike since 1979. The strike involved teachers, nurses, doctors, allied health workers, firefighters, and public servants, with 56% of the population backing the strikers.
The strike's energy dissipated by the end of the year as unions accepted settlement offers below inflation. However, this sequence, explosion, isolation, retreat, reveals a deeper issue in New Zealand's union movement: its relationship with the Labour Party.
Labor was founded by unions in 1916 and remains affiliated with some of them today. This affiliation comes with a price: a standing institutional interest in Labor's return to office, which can lead to a reluctance to escalate fights that might undermine the opposition's credibility.
The Maritime Union of New Zealand (MUNZ), a union covering seafarers and port workers, broke this mold in June 2026 by affiliating with both the Labour Party and the revived Alliance Party, a democratic socialist formation. This move marked a significant moment for the union movement, as it openly named another political home and identified it as socialist.
The MUNZ's affiliation with the Alliance Party was seen as a symptom of Labor's failure to represent the working class. However, it also represented a tentative beginning of the conversation about independent working-class representation, one that could potentially lead to the creation of a workers' party.