Unite works to raise student's wages by plugging cause on campus.
Campaigners wanting to raise the minimum wage have recently set up shop at Unitec.
Mike Treen, the national director of the Unite union which for the last five years has worked to ensure workers on the minimum wage are treated fairly, says the campaign is all about equality.
Campaigners for the organisation say they need the support of Unitec students to lobby the government for a rise in the minimum wage.
The campaign, called Living Wage, is an effort to have the minimum wage in New Zealand raised from $12.50 an hour, to $15.00 an hour.
Mr Treen says the move is about, “making New Zealand a more equal society.”
Unite is compiling a petition to put forward to the government, in the hopes of prompting a referendum, they want to get 350,000 signatures by May 2010.
Mr Treen says the campaign is really starting to gain momentum and that the current figure is in the tens of thousands.
Unite is campaigning on tertiary campuses all over the country; mainly because students are often those who are the hardest hit by what Unite sees as an unreasonable standard of living, partially caused by low wages.
“Students are often victims of the minimum wage culture in this country.”
Mr Treen also notes that students in particular are hugely supportive of the work Unite are doing: “There's very little opposition...Probably ninety percent of the people we stop are happy to sign...Really, the only people who disagree with what we are doing are ACT party types who think there shouldn't be a minimum wage.”
Mr Treen says Unite will continue to campaign hard throughout the country, and on campuses such as Unitec.