AUCKLAND, New Zealand — Behind a banner reading “Immigrants Are Not Disposable Workers,” some 30 migrant bus drivers held a lively rally here May 22 to win support for their fight to stay in the country.
In 2023 hundreds of workers from the Philippines, India and Fiji were recruited by bus companies to fill a shortage of drivers in New Zealand. They were issued a category of entry papers known as an Accredited Employer Work Visa, which lasts for five years. Unless they are on a recognized pathway to residence by then, they and their families have to leave the country for a year before they can apply for a visa again. This is called “the stand-down period.”
To qualify for residence migrants have to pass a stringent English language test. Ryan De Guzman, a bus driver at the rally who came from the Philippines in 2023, told the Militant that the English requirement is set at an “academic” level. “We speak English well enough to give our best to people and keep the city running,” he said, not to graduate from college. Setting a more reasonable, non-discriminatory English standard for drivers and suspending the stand-down period were central demands of the rally.
The rally was sponsored by the Union Network of Migrants, and the Workers First Union, which along with the Tramways Union, organizes bus drivers here. In 2025 both unions told the press that Filipino drivers were being told by bus companies that if they joined the union they would be sent back to their home country.
Terry Coggan is an Auckland bus driver and Tramways Union member.