Written By: - Date published: 12:04 pm, February 27th, 2012 - 35 comments
Government documents from last year reveal a plan to make ACC boost its levies and pay the government a dividend so that private insurers can compete. But that wasn’t enough. Now, the plan seems to be to exclude ACC from workplace injury insurance altogether. Private insurers just can’t offer cover as cheap as ACC can. So that Nats’ solution is to deny us access to ACC workplace cover.
Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, February 27th, 2012 - 89 comments
John Key said he “would love to see wages drop“, and his government has achieved that but they’re just getting started. This is the year when the gloves come off. Ports of Auckland is trying to slash its wage bill by 20%. Talley’s-AFFCO is locking out 750 workers indefinitely. And DHBs are trying to scare nurses ahead of their pay negotiations with the spectre of job cuts.
Written By: - Date published: 9:57 am, February 25th, 2012 - 74 comments
Directorships are the golden ticket in the world of the business elite. You attend maybe 10 meetings a year, sign whatever’s put in front of you, typically get paid $3-4K a pop, and do it over again half a dozen times or more for various companies. It’s a gravy train for managers past their use by date. But customers and shareholders have to trust what directors sign off on.
Written By: - Date published: 8:35 am, February 23rd, 2012 - 56 comments
Steven ‘White Elephant’ Joyce isn’t content with building highways to nowhere with costs that exceed the benefits. Now he wants an international convention centre in Auckland that’s just as pointless. But he doesn’t want the government to pay. So, he’s cutting a dirty deal with more law for sale and more pokie machines blighting our communities.
Written By: - Date published: 11:09 am, February 19th, 2012 - 136 comments
There have been several interesting pieces on the politics of climate change recently, including some reflections (and a new book) from Michael Mann (the scientist behind the “hockey stick”), and leaked documents from the denier industry.
Written By: - Date published: 9:17 am, February 18th, 2012 - 16 comments
No Right Turn on the plight of democracy in Greece.
Written By: - Date published: 6:47 am, February 14th, 2012 - 340 comments
The Bankers’ Crisis is hurting people all over the world. From the deepest, darkest austerity in Greece, to the continuing foreclosure tsunami in the US, to cutbacks and job losses here, it’s the ordinary people suffering the hangover for the bankers’ wild decades of unbridled excess and profit. But at least the banks are suffering too, eh? Yeah, nah.
Written By: - Date published: 9:46 am, February 13th, 2012 - 68 comments
Capitalism is good. Globalisation is good. It’s political orthodoxy. But is it matched by economic reality? Perhaps not. Recent pieces by Bernard Hickey and Gordon Campbell give us plenty to think about…
Written By: - Date published: 9:44 am, February 2nd, 2012 - 16 comments
A remarkably nice worker/boss story from across the ditch: Australian Ken Grenda may have sold his bus company, but his staff of almost 2,000 are smiling. Mr Grenda gave cash bonuses totalling A$15m ($16m, £10m) from proceeds of the sale to employees of his 66-year-old Melbourne-based company. The bonuses, averaging A$8,500, were based on the length …
Written By: - Date published: 11:19 am, January 16th, 2012 - 20 comments
An interesting passage from Herald on Sunday article on Ports of Auckland CEO Tony Gibson and Maritime Union President Garry Parsloe: … “Gibson won’t confirm reports he earns $750,000, saying “I don’t do this for the money,” … Parsloe grins. “They should stop paying him then. That would save the port quite a lot of money every year for a start”
Written By: - Date published: 8:03 am, January 10th, 2012 - 255 comments
Since my post yesterday, Ports of Auckland has upped the ante threatening to sack all its workers and contract out (to quick and loud cheers from the National-aligned blogs they are working with – Cameron Slater’s rate is $10,000 for an operation like this). What they’re proposing is a breach of the law and wouldn’t work, but its just setting the scene for the next stage.
Written By: - Date published: 7:42 pm, January 9th, 2012 - 125 comments
The Right is up to its old tricks over the Ports of Auckland. It’s the usual pattern: make up some bullshit about how the workers are spoiled and unreasonable, cry that the sky will fall if the company doesn’t get its way, and (this is the long-game) suggest privatisation as the solution. What you haven’t heard is the cause of the ‘crisis’: the Port’s attempt to cut the workers’ conditions and pay.
Written By: - Date published: 6:56 pm, December 27th, 2011 - 98 comments
Katherine Rich attacks the waterside union in an opinion piece today.
But that’s not surprising given she’s being paid to speak on behalf of some of the biggest corporations in the world.
Anyone would think there’s some kind of connection between how strong unions are and how big a slice of the pie the rich can take for themselves…
Written By: - Date published: 9:33 pm, December 13th, 2011 - 81 comments
Phil O’Reilly’s article in today’s DomPost headed “The rich get richer but so do the poor ” is appalling. Responding to the OECD report on inequality, he is following in the footsteps of Alasdair Thompson. BusinessNZ are still dinosaur employers from the Victorian age.
Written By: - Date published: 9:20 am, December 10th, 2011 - 40 comments
Truth-Out content is licensed for redistribution, so I’m going to repost this excellent piece in its entirety. It’s long, but it’s worth it. Is Obama going to grow a pair at last?
Written By: - Date published: 7:58 am, December 8th, 2011 - 99 comments
In its final days, South Canterbury Finance quietly loaned $300m to related-parties. Breach of the deposit guarantee scheme’s rules. Nats did nothing. When SCF collapsed the related parties got off scot-free – if they owned SCF bonds, the Nats even paid them $350m voluntarily. Now, the Serious Fraud Office has laid the biggest fraud charges in history over SCF. What’s the bet it’s over those related-party loans and bonds? And where’s our fucken money?
Written By: - Date published: 7:09 am, December 1st, 2011 - 97 comments
Law firm Chapman Tripp has taken it upon itself to summarise the business community’s expectations for National’s second term. Back to youth rates, and that’s just for starters.
Written By: - Date published: 4:02 pm, November 24th, 2011 - 14 comments
Another of those pictures that is worth a thousand words.
Written By: - Date published: 7:27 am, November 16th, 2011 - 14 comments
As has been widely reported, the Wall Street occupation at Zuccotti Park was evicted in an overnight raid yesterday. By refocusing media attention on the Occupation, will this eviction only make them stronger?
Written By: - Date published: 4:35 pm, November 12th, 2011 - 25 comments
Brent Sheather assesses the case for asset sales in today’s Herald. He cuts through the crap and concludes “selling the SOEs doesn’t look all that clever, particularly from the perspective of young people and those other sectors of society who won’t be able to participate in the offers in any material way. This is likely to be at least half the population.” He looks at who really benefits, and it’s the fortunate few once again.
Written By: - Date published: 8:14 am, November 6th, 2011 - 32 comments
1980 saw the election of Ronald Regan as US president. On taking office at the start of 1981 he ushered in a package of right wing economic policies that soon picked up the nick-name “Reganomics”. How did that work out for workers and for inequality?
Written By: - Date published: 10:38 am, November 3rd, 2011 - 4 comments
This address from Dr David Suzuki to the world, delivered to a gathering at Occupy Vancouver, attracted some attention in comments yesterday. Well worth watching.
Written By: - Date published: 8:20 am, November 3rd, 2011 - 82 comments
So, a government says that the people will have the say on its budget, and global markets plunge. Was there ever a clearer sign that the interests of the capitalist elite and the people are at odds, and the capitalists know it? It’s interesting that Papandreou has chosen to force a crisis and headed off a coup. Around the world, ordinary people want radical change.
Written By: - Date published: 11:01 am, November 2nd, 2011 - 20 comments
Yesterday was a dramatic day for Occupy Dunedin. A trespass eviction deadline of 8pm came and went, but after a big show of public support, the Occupation is still there. Dunedin North Labour candidate David Clark lends his support to the movement.
Written By: - Date published: 3:22 pm, October 30th, 2011 - 127 comments
There’s a lot going on with the Qantas lockout that isn’t being reported in our media.
This guest post from a reader who’s an aviation industry expert gives the dispute some context.
Written By: - Date published: 7:22 am, October 26th, 2011 - 72 comments
The PREFU paints a pretty dismal picture of the economy. The worst case scenario is catastrophic, and (at one in five) I think that Treasury has significantly underestimated the odds. Do you feel lucky?…
Written By: - Date published: 11:30 am, October 25th, 2011 - 37 comments
“The truth is, the world cannot be made perfect” says Deborah Hill Cone, arrogantly dismissing the Occupy movement. And she may be right. But that does not mean we are living in the best of all possible worlds and that the injustices and imperfections of our world are things we just have to accept. Rijab takes her on.
Written By: - Date published: 7:15 am, October 25th, 2011 - 88 comments
In response to tough economic times, Government austerity programmes do more harm than good. It’s a pretty simple equation based on the debt / GDP ratio. With an election coming up soon, NZ needs to look for economic competence and a willingness to try new ideas, rather than muddling along deeper into the austerity death trap.
Written By: - Date published: 7:55 am, October 24th, 2011 - 16 comments
On this Labour Day it is good to see that the Labour Party is staying true to its roots, and is out there working for a labour policy to lift the wages and conditions of the workers of New Zealand.
Written By: - Date published: 6:40 pm, October 21st, 2011 - 42 comments
A good interview from Andrew Little on the Nat’s failed attempt to smear him over facebook comments. Nice comments about David Farrar and strong support for the occupy movement. Good to see.
By the way, is it just me or is National’s obsession with opposition social media starting to look less like straight research and more like creepy stalking?
Written By: - Date published: 7:07 am, October 20th, 2011 - 24 comments
The Occupation movement has bankers worried. So far, however, the protests have been peaceful. In fact, the Occupation is quickly shaping up as the biggest ever, world wide test of the efficacy of non-violent protest.
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