Unions are stepping up their campaign to try to halt changes to New Zealand's labour laws and are not ruling out strike action.
The Government has announced it intends to change the laws, including extending the 90-day worker trial period scheme to all businesses and restricting union access to workplaces.
The 90-day scheme, at present open only to businesses with fewer than 20 staff, allows an employer to fire a new worker within the first three months of employment, without the right to take a personal grievance.
Council of Trade Unions president Helen Kelly says public rallies will be held in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin next weekend, to raise awareness about the changes.
Forty two unions which represent more than three quarters of the country's union members are taking part, she says.
Ms Kelly says the rallies are only the start of the campaign. Unions will be asking for all collective agreements to be varied to include the rights of fair dismissal and union access and will take strike action where those provisions are not agreed.
She says there will be a national day of action in October.
David Lowe of the Employers and Manufacturers Association says the unions are over-reacting, and that the trial period law gives people an opportunity to get a job, while changes to union access are simply a case of requiring union representatives to behave appropriately in workplaces.
Mr Lowe says strike action is legal only while a collective employment agreement is being negotiated, making the possibility of widespread strike action unlikely.
