By Elizabeth Orr
At the beginning of her memoir Elizabeth Orr pledges to tell the truth about the fight for pay equity for women, her reasoning being that it has lessons for the future.
Born in 1929, Elizabeth was a trade union leader, involved in the formation of the National Advisory Council on the Employment of Women (NACEW), and in the passing of the Equal Pay Act in 1972.
Elizabeth Orr
Her memoir has fascinating details of the fight for equal pay, culminating in the Kristine Bartlett case, but it is not at all a dry retelling of that fight. It is a wonderful story of life in New Zealand, told in a gentle, authentic voice.
I enjoyed the story she tells of discovering an unknown part of her own story when she realises one of the women in a photo of a PSA equal pay campaign committee circa 1943 is her aunt Oenone Greig.
Elizabeth has been a friend and colleague to many others within the PSA .The book is available from steeleroberts.co.nz
Nā Nanette Cormack
PSA members and local communities joined forces in February to protest restructuring that threatened hundreds of jobs and quality client care.
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As we mark the anniversary of the Christchurch attacks the PSA has added its voice to a call for peace from the city’s Muslim community.
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We’ve been making our voices heard on the new Public Service Legislation Bill with submissions from the PSA, Te Rūnanga o Ngā Toa Āwhina, network and delegate committees and individual members.
‘Tawhiti rawa i tō tatou haerenga atu te kore haere tonu’ - Sir James Henare
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