Sep 16, 2026 · 55 min · 11 segments
609 - Poppy Goes the Bubbles, Poppy Goes the Bubble, Finding Voice at Work - Samuel Mann and Mawera Karetai are joined by Poppy Johns who brings her contribution for Coming Up for Air. This show was…
Poppy JohnsGuest
Mawera KaretaiHost
Samuel MannHost
The bit that really struck me was that overlap between unions and sustainability.
Yeah, sustainability, the more I've been studying it, like I said, it expands in its definition and social sustainability is a reasonably new concept to me.
But when you think about it, it really makes so much sense and especially the role of unions and securing it, making sure unions are the reason we have.
It's the reason we have lunch breaks of, you know, an eight hour working day, five hour working week.
It is really part of the foundation of, um, establishing sustainable work life for literally everybody.
So it makes a lot of sense when you connect the dots that way, but I don't think people would naturally connect the word sustainability with, uh, union activity and, um, Yeah, it was great to see T's passion coming through for unions.
And I think the more we head in this political, economic, individualistic direction, the more we need unions and collective action to secure work that is sustainable for the people doing it.
Do you think that so much of the sustainable side of life and the social side of life are under threat under an autocratic government, which is where we're at kind of at the moment? Do you think that the unions are at risk? And, well, first of all, do you think the unions are at risk, that movement?
We've seen a undercutting of union power in workplaces over the last couple of decades.
And I'm saddened to see employees not understanding the value of unions and collective action.
It's like at the end of the day, working and employment is, it's a relational activity.
for pay and conditions that we deem acceptable and we as workers have power in negotiating the standard and conditions of that work and I don't think people sometimes understand that even when you're negotiating a contract you are able to someone once said to me when you're doing a job interview you're interviewing them as much as they're interviewing you it's not a one way street so I think that idea has been undermined by, for me, I keep connecting it back to individualization, you know, that we're expected to operate as individuals in society and kind of take what we're given.
We're supposed to take supermarket prices and pay at work and things like that as a given that we're unable to affect change to those things when that's really not the case.
So I do think they're under threat and I would love to see people get more involved in their unions and really understand the power that they actually do have, especially when they join with others.
I was just last year, I think it was, or maybe the year before, time is an illusion when you're 55, but somewhere along the last couple of years, I got to be the TEU, which is the Tertiary Education Union, observer at a promotions committee.
And I was delighted to see... that the TEU is sitting in promotions committees observing and making sure that the process is fair because I actually didn't think the process was fair in a couple of instances and I said something about it which didn't delight the senior academics but that was not my problem that was a them problem and but Just the thought that there was actually someone there monitoring, watching, protecting the interests of people who were trying to go up the scale.
When we started the Polytechnic on the journey of every graduate may think and act as a sustainable practitioner.
The bit that really struck me was that overlap between unions and sustainability.
Yeah, sustainability, the more I've been studying it, like I said, it expands in its definition and social sustainability is a reasonably new concept to me.
But when you think about it, it really makes so much sense and especially the role of unions and securing it, making sure unions are the reason we have.
It's the reason we have lunch breaks of, you know, an eight hour working day, five hour working week.
It is really part of the foundation of, um, establishing sustainable work life for literally everybody.
So it makes a lot of sense when you connect the dots that way, but I don't think people would naturally connect the word sustainability with, uh, union activity and, um, Yeah, it was great to see T's passion coming through for unions.
And I think the more we head in this political, economic, individualistic direction, the more we need unions and collective action to secure work that is sustainable for the people doing it.
Do you think that so much of the sustainable side of life and the social side of life are under threat under an autocratic government, which is where we're at kind of at the moment? Do you think that the unions are at risk? And, well, first of all, do you think the unions are at risk, that movement?
We've seen a undercutting of union power in workplaces over the last couple of decades.
And I'm saddened to see employees not understanding the value of unions and collective action.
It's like at the end of the day, working and employment is, it's a relational activity.
for pay and conditions that we deem acceptable and we as workers have power in negotiating the standard and conditions of that work and I don't think people sometimes understand that even when you're negotiating a contract you are able to someone once said to me when you're doing a job interview you're interviewing them as much as they're interviewing you it's not a one way street so I think that idea has been undermined by, for me, I keep connecting it back to individualization, you know, that we're expected to operate as individuals in society and kind of take what we're given.
We're supposed to take supermarket prices and pay at work and things like that as a given that we're unable to affect change to those things when that's really not the case.
So I do think they're under threat and I would love to see people get more involved in their unions and really understand the power that they actually do have, especially when they join with others.
I was just last year, I think it was, or maybe the year before, time is an illusion when you're 55, but somewhere along the last couple of years, I got to be the TEU, which is the Tertiary Education Union, observer at a promotions committee.
And I was delighted to see... that the TEU is sitting in promotions committees observing and making sure that the process is fair because I actually didn't think the process was fair in a couple of instances and I said something about it which didn't delight the senior academics but that was not my problem that was a them problem and but Just the thought that there was actually someone there monitoring, watching, protecting the interests of people who were trying to go up the scale.
When we started the Polytechnic on the journey of every graduate may think and act as a sustainable practitioner.
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