Written By: - Date published: 2:03 pm, October 31st, 2011 - 20 comments
Labour candidate for Northcote Paula Gillon has submitted us a post on National’s proposed starting Youth Rate that appears to be ready for peer-review – with academic references and everything.
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: 8:34 am, October 28th, 2011 - 25 comments
The Nats want to extend the new entrants wage from 200hrs/3 months to 6 months. Won’t create jobs. Most businesses don’t bother with the new entrants wage anyway. word is, though, that the NE wage is a red herring. The guts of the policy will be a broad-spectrum on the rights of workers to organise and bargain designed to drive down wages
Written By: - Date published: 6:48 am, October 25th, 2011 - 13 comments
You won’t find much praise for Talley’s on this site. But, fair dues, they harvest their fish with Kiwi crews and have this to say on slave fishing: “If it is uneconomic to harvest a New Zealand resource under New Zealand labour conditions and costs then it is not a resource. Blood diamonds and Asian textile sweatshops use the same justification”
Written By: - Date published: 11:58 am, October 20th, 2011 - 31 comments
It’s disappointing to see the Dom joining with the Right’s mouthpieces in attacking Labour’s work and wages policy. The editorial says of course “something” must be done about low and inequitable wages but opposes introducing a system modeled on the one that delivers high wages in Australia. Meanwhile bosses are putting the screws on to cut workers’ pay.
Written By: - Date published: 1:26 am, October 19th, 2011 - 81 comments
St. Augustine said “Lord, give me chastity, but not yet”. Was reminded of that reading the Tories’ reaction to Labour’s work and wages policy. Tories say they want you to have higher wages. But not yet. It’s always later. Once you’ve earned it. In the ‘brighter future’. And they’ll scream blue murder any time you demand what you deserve today.
Written By: - Date published: 12:20 pm, October 18th, 2011 - 26 comments
“We need more cheap foreign fishermen” says the slave fishing lobby group. They say that it’s just like Fisher & Paykel moving their production offshore for cheaper labour. Well, tell you want, slave-fishers, how about you fuck off to China and we’ll stay here and fish our fish ourselves without breaking labour and environment laws? NoRightTurn takes up the story.
Written By: - Date published: 6:16 am, October 18th, 2011 - 116 comments
update: Labour’s policy is here. Looks good. $15 minimum wage. Mondayisation of holidays. Industry standards to stop bad employers undercutting ones that pay fair wages. Good for workers. Good for good bosses. It’s a lot like the system the Aussies have. You know, the people whose wages we’re meant to be catching up with. The Tories are whinging. Like they do whenever anyone fights for higher wages
Written By: - Date published: 2:09 pm, October 16th, 2011 - 90 comments
Word around the traps is Labour is working on a significant new wage policy. Good – like nearly every other deregulated market the labour market has been failing Kiwis for more than twenty years. It’s time to bring some balance back into the system. Let’s just hope Labour has the guts to make a proper job of it.
Written By: - Date published: 12:10 pm, October 16th, 2011 - 6 comments
Over at Wheelers corner in the Manwatu there is this rather classic post about a conversation overheard in a cafe. It really does stand on its own as a tombstone to a departing MP.
Written By: - Date published: 12:30 pm, October 11th, 2011 - 21 comments
Can we afford 3 more years of falling real wages under Key?
Written By: - Date published: 12:32 pm, October 7th, 2011 - 73 comments
The median (‘typical’) Kiwi income has fallen 6% under National after inflation. It’s worse if you’re Maori – 16%. And if you’re PI? 21%. That’s more than a hundred dollars a week. It’s a disgrace. In fact, ordinary people’s incomes have shrunk faster than the economy under National. Their policies have driven more of what’s left to the rich.
Written By: - Date published: 7:24 am, October 7th, 2011 - 81 comments
National’s economic credibility was shot to pieces last week when Fitch and Standard & Poor’s gave them ‘not achieved’ marks. Less than a quarter of the OECD has been downgraded. New Zealand is one of them. The Nats won’t admit there’s a problem. When the statistics are laid in front of them, they say they’re wrong. In the Nats’ war with reality, we’re the victims.
Written By: - Date published: 6:43 am, October 3rd, 2011 - 43 comments
As National muddles through, refusing to reexamine its economic plans after the shock double-downgrade on Friday, the job losses are starting to pile up again. It’s very reminiscent of the last recession, which we will haven’t recovered from thanks to 3 years of muddling. Can we afford 3 more years? Here’s a list of job losses in the past month.
Written By: - Date published: 8:44 am, September 30th, 2011 - 101 comments
Grateful citizens rejoiced this week at the passage of the VTM (Voluntary Taxation Mechanism) bill.
Written By: - Date published: 7:10 am, September 29th, 2011 - 23 comments
National did not cope well yesterday when their economic record was held up to the light. John Key was all at sea as he tried to dismiss new statistics showing 47,000 jobs have been lost under his watch. He cited instead another statistical series, which he has previously rejected when it showed 56,000 more people are unemployed under National.
Written By: - Date published: 4:10 pm, September 27th, 2011 - 48 comments
Written By: - Date published: 9:15 am, September 27th, 2011 - 55 comments
One of the big stories last night was the anti-VSM protest at Auckland Uni. Was it the last one we will see in NZ? That would suit the Nats very nicely – sheep will be so much easier to fleece…
Written By: - Date published: 11:29 am, September 14th, 2011 - 64 comments
The other day, Irish covered the odious comments from liquidator/columnist Damien Grant calling unskilled people ‘commodities’. That was in the context of a pretty flimsy attack on Gareth Morgan and Susan Guthrie’s ‘Big Kahuna’ tax plan. Yesterday, Morgan and Guthrie responded to Grant’s attacks. The Jackal says Morgan and Guthrie have it right.
Written By: - Date published: 10:23 am, September 12th, 2011 - 46 comments
National promised to close the wage gap with Australia, and stop the flow of people across the ditch. Instead they’ve not just massively increased the wage gap and the number of people fleeing the country, they’re now forcing our best and brightest out.
Written By: - Date published: 10:19 am, September 8th, 2011 - 8 comments
IHC workers won a lengthy court battle to have the work they do overnight (so-called ‘sleepover’ shifts) recognised as work worthy of the minimum wage. The $300m in backpay they were due would have bankrupted IHC. The government, so keen to bailout corporate mates, refused to help. Now, the workers have given us, taxpayers, a $200m break on their debt.
Written By: - Date published: 9:54 pm, September 6th, 2011 - 7 comments
Robert Reich writes about the impact of growing inequality in the United States. He has a graphic that shows the effects over the past hundred years. As the US and Europe come closer to their Niagara fall, the logic is compelling. Edmund Burke’s saying that those who don’t know their history are destined to repeat it comes to mind.
Written By: - Date published: 10:47 am, September 6th, 2011 - 15 comments
The New York Times has a graphic comparing the outcomes of economic policy in the US, specifically comparing the broadly social democratic policies prevalent between 1847 and 1979, and the NeoLiberal policies since 1980. The differences are astounding.
Written By: - Date published: 7:13 am, August 29th, 2011 - 75 comments
One of the lies at the heart of the Nats’ approach to industrial relations is that negotiating directly with the employer “empowers” the individual worker and allows them to get better wages and conditions. The facts prove otherwise.
Written By: - Date published: 11:01 am, August 24th, 2011 - 17 comments
Written By: - Date published: 11:48 am, August 22nd, 2011 - 43 comments
Pike River had lax safety systems. Profits came first. The workforce was highly casualised to weaken the bargaining power of the union. The boss, Peter Whittall, will end up getting the blame. Labour says it will restore miners’ power over their safety by bringing back check inspectors. It’s now up to the Nats to explain why they won’t.
Written By: - Date published: 10:52 am, August 20th, 2011 - 24 comments
Prime Minister John Key has reacted to growing fears that the world is slipping into a second round of financial crisis and recession before it has recovered from the first one by boldly opening a 180km cycleway through the King Country. Part of a $50m cycleway project, it is expected to boost the economy by $5-$20 quadrillion, according to the PM.
Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, August 19th, 2011 - 60 comments
Bennett and Key are divided in their opinions and their stats, but at least they’re united in their state of denial.
Written By: - Date published: 12:31 pm, August 18th, 2011 - 30 comments
Nats have announced 6 more DoL safety inspectors for mines and oil drilling. Up from 2 now (only one position filled). Sounds good but DoL’s failure at Pike River was systematic, not just about numbers. Where’s the stronger safety standards? Why aren’t they bringing back worker-elected check inspectors? The miners want them. Why don’t the Nats listen?
Written By: - Date published: 10:08 am, August 18th, 2011 - 36 comments
In a desperate and heartless attempt to spin their way out of their awful record on jobs, National is getting surreal. First, there’s Bill English claiming that the job you used to have under Labour wasn’t a real job. Then, you’ve got John Key saying that you’re not really unemployed now. I guess it’s all in you imagination. Don’t look to National for help.
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