2012, more of the same?

57 comments on “2012, more of the same? ”

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1. Bob Stanforth 1

   7 January 2012 at 3:16 pm

   On the wrong track with the port workers – rejected 10%, asked for 2.5%. Their leader says its not about money. Do keep up. Otherwise people might think you are either ill-informed, or deliberately obfuscating.

   [do get informed, Bob. The 10% is the increase offered for number of years, 2.5% is this year alone. It’s the oldest PR trick in the book- to look like they’re being generous and the workers look unreasonable, the company uses a multi year figure; to make their demands seem more reasonable and the bosses stingy, the union uses one year only. And it’s about more then wages. There’s conditions issues, particularly around regulation breaks and contacting out. Eddie]
   • Colonial Viper 1.1

     7 January 2012 at 3:46 pm

     Wow Bob are you so naive to think that $/hour is the only important measure of an employment contract? Of course, not, you’re an experienced operator so I hope you are not doing what you’ve just accused others of – obfuscating.

     As an example how about little minor contractual things like hours worked, breaks allowed, shifts and regulation of shift changes, structure of paid hours, performance reviews, conditions of holidays and stat days, etc.
     • Nick C 1.1.1

       7 January 2012 at 3:58 pm

       You’re right CV, employment contracts are about far more than dollars

       Their about things like getting free medical insurance for your entire family, Three times the statiutory sick leave entitlement, five weeks annual leave, not requiring a single qualification and working for as little as 66% of your paid shift.

       These arent things the stevedores are striking for, these are things they ALREADY HAVE.

       You dont have to fundamentally change your beliefs about industrial relations to admit that unions can abuse their market power to extract large consessions, just as employers can.

       If not, I look forward to seeing you jumping to the defense of the Christchurch Council CEO for his $68,000 pay rise.

       IrishBill: ah, the politics of envy. Nice one wee man.

       [from the people who promised you a high wage economy comes ‘how dare people without degrees earn $27 an hour plus benefits AND ask to keep their conditions and the real value of their pay’. Funny how when the govt was GIVING a thousand dollar a week tax cut to Paul Reynolds, paid for with borrowed money, you weren’t outraged and pointing out his benefits, like a dozen first class return trips to Scotlabd a year. Eddie]
       • millsy 1.1.1.1

         7 January 2012 at 4:12 pm

         So would you like them to lose ALL of their pay and conditions and just be on call casuals working minimum wage?
       • Colonial Viper 1.1.1.2

         7 January 2012 at 5:41 pm

         Say Nick C, can you tell me how many executives the Port of Auckland has who are paid over a quarter million dollars per year? I’m betting that its a dozen or more.

         Because in tough times I’m quite happy for an organisation to temporarily reduce pay and conditions for staff, maybe even eliminate a few of the positions in restructuring, for the competitiveness and overall sustainability of the business.

         Starting at the very top, from the Board of Directors down, of course.
       • Ari 1.1.1.3

         7 January 2012 at 5:47 pm

         Because those things certainly compare with what the rich elite are fleecing from the rest of us. If the ports are going to make such a large profit, I am absolutely behind the idea of raising standards for workers before we pay out obscene dividends, even to the council.
       • Lanthanide 1.1.1.4

         7 January 2012 at 5:47 pm

         Yip, it seems to me like anyone who brings up the supposed $90k they make per year is really engaging in the politics of envy. Everyone in NZ should be proud that people can work jobs like this, get paid $90k (if they do indeed get paid that) and their employer is still profitable! If only there were more jobs like that in this country, we’d be doing a lot better.

         Also given how expensive houses are in Auckland, if they’re the sole breadwinner in the family they’re still likely to be renting and not owning.
         • Colonial Viper 1.1.1.4.1

           7 January 2012 at 5:56 pm

           I wonder what the median income for those stevedores is. POA management is fond of quoting the average income for the position at $90K, but that requires frequent double shifts; I bet that the median stevedore will earn a fair bit less than that figure.
           • RedLogix 1.1.1.4.1.1

             7 January 2012 at 6:19 pm

             Well at 27.40 per hour a gross income of $96,000 requires roughly 3,500 hrs at ordinary time… or roughly 72 hours per week. Of course shift work at time and a half changes means that the actual hours worked might be closer to 50-55 hrs per week.

             Then of course no-one can safely work those kind of hours, week in week out without breaks.. and given the inherently reactive and variable workload I’m not at all surprised that labour utilisation drops as low as 65%.

             Crucially if management stopped trying to fuck with the unions and got onside with them … and offered to share the productivity gains… the workers, the people who actually DO the job and therefore know how to do it best, POAL could almost certainly improve that figure.

             Of course while management demand more productivity, it never enters their mind that sharing the pay-off with their workers is the best way to achieve it.
             • Akldnut …

               7 January 2012 at 9:34 pm

               It’s obvious POA management will slowly bring in more and more contractors at lower pay rates while restructuring employees tasks, effectively downsizing whilst changing the workforce structure.

               All blame is being pointed at the union with who are merely trying to protect their jobs/future whilst management cop no blame for being unreasonable or for causing any industrial action.

               Right wing media pricks should be ashamed of themselves – oh for it to happen to them and hear them squeal about it.
       • seeker 1.1.1.5

         7 January 2012 at 6:58 pm

         @ Nick C

         “not requiring a single qualification and working for as little as 66% of your paid shift……”

         I often feel this about some of the politicians in this National government, and their seniors in particular.
       • gnomic 1.1.1.6

         7 January 2012 at 11:53 pm

         ‘not requiring a single qualification’

         Somehow I just know that this person has never seen a stevedore at work or been in the hold of a ship being unloaded. It may ostensibly be an unskilled occupation but you wouldn’t last long without your wits about you.

         As it happens I have been in a ship in the course of being unloaded as casual labour at Ports of Auckland, and thought the stevedores were earning their pay in a hazardous occupation.

         Of course this is not about workers being overpaid since by definition all labour is overpaid in the ‘first world’ countries these days. Big money employs a platoon of dickhead smallfry MBA types to put a stop to this kind of thing. It’s really about making sure Joe Sixpack can’t earn a living wage with any certainty and needs to suck up to the bosses.

         And by the way, sod off you silly twerp. Shouldn’t you be kissing Whaleoil’s ring or whatever turns you on?
         • Colonial Viper 1.1.1.6.1

           8 January 2012 at 1:04 am

           This ‘unskilled’ moniker pisses me off. Is the CEO who crashes his corporation into the dirt causing billions in counterparty risk to rain down threatening the entire financial system ‘skilled’ or ‘unskilled’ in this scenario?

           Frankly this world would be better off if there were more ‘unskilled’ types hanging around able to do real work (like moving shit on and off big ships), and fewer ‘skilled’ types in suits fucking things up for entire communities or entire societies.
   • Bob Stanforth 1.2

     7 January 2012 at 5:12 pm

     Eddie, you should try accuracy first, rather than dog whistle, its unbecoming.

     You said “port workers having to strike to get an inflation-rate pay raise” and I said “Their leader says its not about money” and Im right…

     http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1201/S00010/ports-of-auckland-dispute-about-job-security-not-wages.htm

     Unless of course you are disagreeing with the esteemed Mr Parsloe? Facts, not dog whistle, isn’t that what you hold dear?
     • bbfloyd 1.2.1

       7 January 2012 at 5:42 pm

       nice bit of oversimplification there little bobby brady…. strange that you would pick an argument over an issue you lack the depth and attention to detail to understand……. or is it just personal…..?
       • Bob Stanforth 1.2.1.1

         7 January 2012 at 6:37 pm

         oh, did I use facts buhbuhfloyd, was that too hard for you to deal with so you decided it must be personal? Do grow up and argue the facts, there’s a good lad.
         • Colonial Viper 1.2.1.1.1

           7 January 2012 at 6:47 pm

           Come on Bob you got called out now give us a proper answer instead of this obfuscation.

           You tried to condense a complex lengthy negotiation over a lengthy contract document into a couple of quippy sentences. Doesn’t work.
           • Bob Stanforth 1.2.1.1.1.1

             7 January 2012 at 7:44 pm

             What, like “port workers having to strike to get an inflation-rate pay raise”?

             Yeah, my bad. Here I was thinking this was the ‘home of facts’ lol 🙂

             [lprent: We don’t claim that we are a news service or an encylopedia or any other type of reference manual. Looks like you need some time to examine the about, and possibly the policy. Given your poor record at reading and comprehending, I will give you some time to undertake these difficult tasks. 2 week ban.

             You will eventually note in the policy that we really do not like people who try to tell us who we are or what we should do. ]
             • Colonial Viper …

               7 January 2012 at 8:06 pm

               Where was it claimed that The Standard was the “home of facts”?

               Come on bob you can do better than this distraction routine. How much does the CEO of POA earn per hour worked.
               • joe bloggs …

                 8 January 2012 at 3:51 pm

                 Where was it claimed that The Standard was the “home of facts”?

                 Interesting observation CV

                 [lprent: read the about and the policy (you must be familiar with the drill). One states who we are. The other states how much of a bastard I am to people who waste my time. But you know that already…. ]
         • bbfloyd 1.2.1.1.2

           8 January 2012 at 12:13 pm

           no you didn’t use facts… young bobby….. you misused them….. and when it is obvious one is dealing with a moron who isn’t cognizent of reality or possesses the capacity to absorb the totality of an issue beyond parroting propaganda designed to do no more than hijack the issue for underhand, and dishonest reasons…..then debating the “facts” would be an excercise in pointlessness….

           which is why i am amusing myself enumerating your obvious failings of intellect, and scruple, aligned with a narrow, bigoted worldview more in keeping with an alabama sharecropper…… the only real use in having you involved is to provide an outlet for those who tire of the halfwit, reactionary idiocy that passes for political discourse among the “ruling classes” and their pets fronting the media to relieve some small measure of frustration by lampooning your kind of ugly, sneering, superiority complex….

           btw….try to use a bit more imagination when copying the renaming game…. if you have any…… or did you not grasp the inference of your new name?
2. Wild Colonial Boy 2

   7 January 2012 at 3:39 pm

   Eddie forgot to mention the continuing stratospheric popularity of our Dear Leader, untouched by ongoing tremors in O Tautahi / Christchurch, or the markets …
3. RedLogix 3

   7 January 2012 at 5:04 pm

   Eddie,

   So you’re not the only one here who buggers off to the bush for a break from it all. I can’t imagine not being able to get away for a few days or a week sometimes just for the decompression.

   And I guess I’m not the only one whose feeling that there’s just been a steady stream of bad news in the last few years…. not just the catastrophic like the Sendai and ChCh quakes, but stupid mindless idiocy like the man stabbed in Napier cos he was wearing red and some local cretins took exception, or fools who’ve watched too much Top Gear and kill themselves and other innocents racing high-powered death traps.

   Or death that was the consequence of structural folly and hubris, like Pike River.

   And then the plain inexplicable like the guy this week who apparently took a tumble on the Puffer Track to Smith’s Creek (a doddle of a walk I’ve done in the dark several times) and manages to kill himself. Or the shocking like this ballon accident. It was a beautiful morning in the Wairarapa today… and yet sudden horrible death stalked it.

   Maybe I’m just getting old and the bumper strip is wearing thin, but this is slowly getting to me. I’m thinking that as a civilisation we’ve peaked, and that like the Rena groaning in adverse weather the cracks are slowly getting wider.
   • Colonial Viper 3.1

     7 January 2012 at 5:53 pm

     Maybe I’m just getting old and the bumper strip is wearing thin, but this is slowly getting to me. I’m thinking that as a civilisation we’ve peaked, and that like the Rena groaning in adverse weather the cracks are slowly getting wider.

     I think we are going to start finding the MSM painfully loud and upbeat very shortly. This is like trying to shore up the Rena with panelbeaters bog. Apprently in the USA employment has hit a 3 year low, and their manufacturing sector is picking up noticeably. So trumpet the MSM.

     Who the frak seriously believes any of that.

     (The US calculates their unemployment stats off their “workforce participation” numbers. As fewer people are classed as active participants in the workforce, guess what: unemployment ‘decreases’).

     The overall point – do you know what a civilisation in the early throes of energy depletion looks like? When it’s just crossed peak energy and is starting on the gentle part of the downslope of energy availability.

     No? Well, just look around you. This is the new normal. If you look very carefully, you’ll find that over the next 24 months “Business As Usual” goes from expecting quarterly GDP growth of 0.8% to a kind of perpetual stagnation. A slow but insidious transition of mindset which is necessary if the frog is not to notice the water getting ever warmer.
     • RedLogix 3.1.1

       7 January 2012 at 6:29 pm

       Yes. The thing that most frightens me about the post-Oil era is not the loss of living standard. As an experienced tramper I’m really not too fussed about flash house, flash car and lots of comforts. When you’ve spent a week in mid-winter under a bivvy rock in a non-stop Southern Alp storm, all else, however plain compares as pure indulgence.

       No what does give me the grip is thinking about the reaction of the people around me to this decline. Will it be dominated by a withdrawal into mean conservatism and isolationism, or a re-birth of a new collective conciousness?

       Mad-Max apocolyptic or Green Revolution eco-technic?
       • Colonial Viper 3.1.1.1

         7 January 2012 at 6:42 pm

         A heck of a lot of people are not going to cope at all well, when they realise that what they have been promised in terms of future earnings and lifestyle is all a lie. Expect – higher rates of depression, suicide, self harm, random and family violence. All the hallmarks of people under stress who have been taught to assume as individual failings what is actually a global structural geo-political economic predicament.

         One problem that I see: the most influential decision makers of our world are also the people who are the most insulated from the early signs of civilisation wide energy depletion, and the most to gain from pretending that BAU continues.

         We can’t trust them to do the right things for us in sufficient time, methinks. We also can’t trust them not to erect physical and metaphorical Baghdad/US style ‘Green Zones’ which shelter the elite but leave everyone else outside to fend for themselves.
         • Macro 3.1.1.1.1

           7 January 2012 at 7:04 pm

           When we look at the reactions of the so called “leaders” in Europe to their debt crisis. We can see that they have no satisfactory answers at all. The sad fact is that “economies” have been gleefully spending up large and borrowing on perceived future earnings based on “cheap” energy, and at the same time offloading environmental costs onto the future as well. There are going to be many people who are going to be very disappointed.
         • RedLogix 3.1.1.1.2

           7 January 2012 at 7:21 pm

           One problem that I see: the most influential decision makers of our world are also the people who are the most insulated from the early signs of civilisation wide energy depletion, and the most to gain from pretending that BAU continues.

           Precisely the same problem Jared Diamond details in his excellent book Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed that the Norse settlers in medieval Greenland faced. Albeit on a far smaller scale.

           The Norse settled a small number of micro-climates in several fiords, but the most favourable locations were first occupied by farm-holdings who for this reason enjoyed a permanent structural advantage over their fellows. Over generations this advantage ossified into a deeply unequal society where much of the wealth… and all the cultural and political power was concentrated into this small minority of families.

           When external circumstances, climatic, political and economic, changed against them it was of course those poorer farms and households in the outer, the least viable settlements who first struggled, then abandoned their land. Many starved, lacking even the means to escape back to Iceland or Europe.

           But the well-off and wealthy were insulated from this insidious change. As far as they were concerned they were doing alright thanks. Why change? Of course all their wealth really bought them was privilege of starving to death last.

           Yet here is the truly bizzare thing was this. The Norse settlers were culturally farmers. They strongly believed fish was not food for decent people. Yet despite the fact that the Innuit were their neighbours, happily adapted to the same environment and fishing like crazy… the Norse starved to death sitting on top on ocean full of fish they refused to eat.
           • Colonial Viper 3.1.1.1.2.1

             7 January 2012 at 7:34 pm

             … the Norse starved to death sitting on top on ocean full of fish they refused to eat.

             Fascinating. I wonder what a starving Hindu family would do with their last cow. Or a starving Vegan family a side of sirloin.

             Perception (or mis-perception) can kill as surely as a bullet to the head.
         • M 3.1.1.1.3

           7 January 2012 at 8:28 pm

           ‘A heck of a lot of people are not going to cope at all well, when they realise that what they have been promised in terms of future earnings and lifestyle is all a lie. Expect – higher rates of depression, suicide, self harm, random and family violence. All the hallmarks of people under stress who have been taught to assume as individual failings what is actually a global structural geo-political economic predicament.’

           Fine words CV and they will first assume it’s their fault that they don’t have jobs and then maybe look for scapegoats. I know a couple of women with jobs paying 90K who blow the lot on stuff like $200 wrinkle creams that they cannot live without – they need to visit a couple of rest homes to see that there are no hot 80 year-olds, although Hefner may dispute this, how will they cope if the axe falls on them?

           As for the insulated I also know a guy high up in the public service who believes it’s his God-given right to have 2k a week take home pay, cause y’know he flies around the country to have relationship building meetings all the time but likes to slag off bludger beneficiaries – he couldn’t spot the irony if it jumped and and slapped him in the face. Dear me, how would he get by on the unemployment benefit?

           Still the PTB cannot handle the fact that people see they’ve been gamed with all the occupy movement camps which is what a good many will be living in I reckon within the decade. Either that or they will drag themselves from place to place hoping to find work that isn’t there and maybe starve on the way – hiring the ‘Grapes of Wrath’ might help them get a clue.
           • Colonial Viper 3.1.1.1.3.1

             7 January 2012 at 8:50 pm

             The trend in the US is that the top tenth of the top 1% have started feeding on the rest of the top 10% now, because the bottom 90% have only a miniscule amount of wealth left after the decimation of the working class and the shrinking of the middle class.

             Investment accounts of millionaires and professionals are now being raided to support the balance sheets of the very few at the very top, even as Wall St lays off tens of thousands of junior and mid level execs and brokers.

             This is going to be very ugly for those who are still sleepwalking through their cottonwool world.
   • bbfloyd 3.2

     7 January 2012 at 5:55 pm

     you’ll enjoy craig marriner’s “stone dogs” … then.
4. pollywog 4

   7 January 2012 at 5:56 pm

   2012 – the year to end all years

   hopefully there’ll be an intellectual re-evolution by the time my birthday rolls around…

   http://pollywannacracka.blogspot.com/2011/12/131211.html
5. Arthur 5

   7 January 2012 at 6:02 pm

   The locusts must be due soon, or maybe it will be disease and pestilence or fire and brimstone.
   • Colonial Viper 5.1

     7 January 2012 at 6:10 pm

     Fire and brimstone? ‘Allied’ forces are quite fond of using white phosphorus munitions on enemy troops. Does that count?

     http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4440664.stm
6. prism 6

   7 January 2012 at 6:03 pm

   Thinking about the difficulties of getting a better world, I was reminded of this book on Trademe. Reading about it I was amazed and heartened that things were getting better in Liberia because of the actions of their brave women. It’s called Mighty be our Powers – this is the review of it.

   MIGHTY BE THEIR POWERS chronicles the unthinkable violence Leymah Gbowee has faced throughout her life and the peace she has helped to broker by empowering her countrywomen and others around the world to take action and change history. As a young 17 year-old girl growing up in Africa, Gbowee was broken by a savage war when violence reached her native Monrovia, depriving her of the education she yearned for and claiming the lives of relatives and friends. As war continued to destroy Liberia, Gbowee’s bitterness turned to rage-fueled action as she realized it is women who bear the greatest burden in prolonged conflicts.

   Passionate and charismatic, Gbowee was instrumental in galvanizing hundreds, if not thousands of women in Liberia in 2003 to force peace in the region after 14 years of war. She began organizing Christian and Muslim women to demonstrate together, launching protests and eventually a sex strike. This is an extraordinary memoir in the vein of Aayan Hirsi Ali and Queen Noor. It chronicles the unthinkable violence Gbowee has faced throughout her life and the peace she helped to broker by empowering her countrywomen and others around the world to take action.Sometimes, it takes just one woman to change history.
7. Glenn 7

   7 January 2012 at 6:46 pm

   While we have been inactive over the holiday season..

   The world keeps turning and folks keep killing..
   For this to be happening in 2012 is ridiculous. It seems like one of those old movies from the 1930s.

   Thousands massacred as two tribes go to war in South Sudan
   UN peacekeepers tell residents of Jonglei state capital to flee as raiders approach

   More than 3,000 people have been reported killed in South Sudan during a week of clashes between two tribes in the world’s newest state.
   Hundreds of children are missing and entire villages are said to have been burnt as a huge raiding party from the Lou Nuer tribe swept through a remote area in the east of the country, attacking their neighbours, the Murle people.
   The war party, estimated to be 6,000-strong, has been marching south towards the main town in the Murle area, Pibor, crossing hundreds of miles on foot.
   http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/thousands-massacred-as-two-tribes-go-to-war-in-south-sudan-6286342.html
8. John D 8

   7 January 2012 at 6:48 pm

   You seemed to have missed Tony Marryatt’s pay rise (ChCh council CEO).
   This still seems to be getting a lot of airtime in the media
   • Colonial Viper 8.1

     7 January 2012 at 6:53 pm

     Especially since he came out and basically said that ‘he’s worth it’.

     Prick. And of course, Bob Parker who defended him. Basic Council workers aren’t worth more than $13/hr according to these guys but the CEO is somehow worth an extra $1250/week.

     Time to sharpen the blade on the guillotines.
     • Tigger 8.1.1

       7 January 2012 at 6:59 pm

       And Key nowhere in sight over the balloon tragedy. He’s in Hawaii? Haven’t heard a whiff of that this year. Who the hell has been running the joint?
       • Anne 8.1.1.1

         7 January 2012 at 8:28 pm

         And Key nowhere in sight over the balloon tragedy.

         Brownlee offered his condolences on behalf of the govt. so presume he is Acting PM. Havn’t heard a peep out of the lazy sod until today. I remember Jim Anderton taking on the role when Helen Clark was on her January holiday break. He not only kept the wheels turning, but he kept the population informed about what was happening.
         • infused 8.1.1.1.1

           8 January 2012 at 1:40 am

           Yeah, because the PM can’t have a break eh?
           • Colonial Viper 8.1.1.1.1.1

             8 January 2012 at 2:06 am

             Uh…yes the PM needs and deserves a break like anyone else…but like a global Fortune 500 CEO, member of the emergency services or military (or any Cabinet Minister, come to think of it) he remains effectively on call 24/7.

             If one can’t accept the demands of the very very well paying job, resign.
     • John D 8.1.2

       7 January 2012 at 7:10 pm

       CV, despite the fact that we seem to disagree on a lot of political issues, I am with you on this one.
       • Colonial Viper 8.1.2.1

         7 January 2012 at 8:55 pm

         Hearing ya. Believe it or not I really have no problem with people being paid well to perform in a tough job. Some jobs to my mind really are worth every cent of $250K pa. But sometimes these guys at the top really take the piss with how far they take it, and IMO its unconscionable.
         • John D 8.1.2.1.1

           8 January 2012 at 11:33 am

           The main issue with the Maryatt case, in my view, is that there are some ChCh residents who are paying double rates because they cannot live in their own home (no sanitation, power etc). The council refuse to give them a 100% amnesty on the rates on the damaged property.

           In some cases, the people involved are retired folk. Maryatt’s pay rise, in this context, is seriously out of order.
     • Populuxe1 8.1.3

       9 January 2012 at 12:21 am

       True CV, Council CEOs get paid far too much, and true, it’s debatable whether his actual productivity warrants his salary, but the pay rise just brings him into parity with the CEOs of Auckland and Wellington – but at an unfortunate time with the earthquakes, and he was foolish enough to get all smug about it.
       • Colonial Viper 8.1.3.1

         9 January 2012 at 12:43 am

         So we have 3 CEOs on excessive pay, why am I not relieved. The normalisation of private sector madness across our society.

         Personally I think that pay in this country should be effectively capped at 20x the median income (= $30K pa).
         • Populuxe1 8.1.3.1.1

           9 January 2012 at 12:52 am

           I know it’s an old chestnut, but how else do you attract talent away from the higher paying private sector. Maybe we should adopt similar practices to the NZRU?
           • Colonial Viper 8.1.3.1.1.1

             9 January 2012 at 8:32 am

             Its quite simple and its to do with values, values which also not coincidentally have been destroyed by the neoliberals.

             Its the same as the All Blacks of old. Before professionalisation. Who held down ordinary day jobs and who nevertheless trained hard out on the team for next to nothing. And whose employers would put up with the inconvenience of having a staff member disappear off for weeks at a time on tour.

             But there’s more than just values and a proud sense of public service which NZ used to have in spades (before the neolibs successfully framed the public sector as lazy, incompetent, inefficient, and bludging parasites of society – which interestingly is what they themselves are).

             Firstly, you effectively cap private sector wages so they can’t get so incredibly far ahead.

             Secondly you have public sector wages which are within 20% of those private sector wages.

             Thirdly you have a whole different work style – arguably just as efficient mind you, but different and friendlier – and sets of different perks than you do in the private sector.

             Things like better super, better time off, less short term goal oriented pressure, better leadership, being paid to help the community…these are all things which would make skilled professionals dump the private sector and move to the public sector, even on marginally lower pay.

             This kind of competition was unacceptable to the neolibs so they destroyed it. Now working for the public sector and the private sector is qualitatively much more similar, but the private sector can always of course beat on pay.

             Go figure.
           • RedLogix 8.1.3.1.1.2

             9 January 2012 at 8:57 am

             +1 with CV above.

             We forget that prior to the 1980’s this nation’s public sector, and especially infrastructure like electricity, was built on the talent and hard-work of civil servants who for the most part were content to live in an ordinary home in Tawa, catch the unit into the city, walk in their shorts, long socks and sandals to a very plain little office in a big govt building that had very little in the way of frills.

             The did this partly because the job was safe, and predictable and came with a good retirement package. And for engineers, safe and predictable is their bread and butter, it lets them plan long-term and achieve big things over decades of a working career.

             And more than anything else… they believed that they were doing something worthwhile and valued.
   • fender 8.2

     7 January 2012 at 10:35 pm

     He claimed he worked 9 weeks without a weekend, it’s since been discovered that on 2 occasions during the 9 weeks he had been playing golf !
   • Puddleglum 8.3

     8 January 2012 at 10:54 pm

     An interesting aspect of the ‘Marryatt Furore’ (as the Press call it) is Marryatt saying that this is being hyped by those who want to replace the Council with commissioners.

     Now, I am entirely opposed to Marryatt’s excessive pay rise and Parker and other councillors okaying it – but it surely is remarkable that the CEO of the Council is mentioning the continuing campaign to bring in commissioners?

     And I’m sure he doesn’t mean Jocelyn and John Normal from some cul de sac in Bishopdale who might write heated letters to the editor. Presumably he’s alluding to people in reasonably powerful positions or powerful people who are lobbying for this. Presumably he’s referring to this group of business people and perhaps others?

     Much as I dislike the behaviour of Parker and the majority of councillors – on this issue and others – I wouldn’t want to see what little local democracy we have taken away. 

     It’s up to the electors to reprimand Parker and, by extension, Marryatt – not government. Isn’t that how democracy is meant to work? And CERA  – with Gerry Brownlee atop – is already in charge of the rebuild and can do whatever it likes in that regard. 

      
9. Tom Gould 9

   7 January 2012 at 7:09 pm

   The big Tories are still on holiday, so their fellow travellers are keeping the dispute on slow simmer until they are back and can leverage it for political advantage, just like they did with their mates Warner and Jackson. They will start with the snivelling little Tory bureaucrat who runs the Chamber, then follow up with the snivelling big Tory bureaucrat who runs the other thing, then take it from there. Special legislation is a certainty. Word is that plans are already underway. The key messages are around ‘brighter futures’ and ‘clearing away the blockages to growth’ and ‘holding our prosperity to ransom’. Will it be enough, though?
   • tc 9.1

     8 January 2012 at 2:08 pm

     absoultely Tom, Barnett and Katherine Rich right on queue and note how it’s positioned to maximise the dead air summer period when the disputes long running and there’s no real reporting in exact details as to why is Tauranga winning over POA in straight up commercial deals……could it be management the key difference…..just saying.

     I heard Fonterra were pulling out of POA years ago and would do all north Island from Tauranga….logistically sound but the infrastructure build up was required first but very convenient timing eh.
10. Colonial Viper 10

    8 January 2012 at 9:00 am

    Backgrounder on current US-Iranian conflict

    …going back to 1953. The US engineered overthrow of Iran’s democratic government and installing of the Shah, the blowback in terms of the return of the Ayotollahs, the embassy hostage crisis, US sponsorship of Iraqi war against Iran (including supplying Saddam Hussein with WMD for use against Iranians), Iran-Contra affair, etc.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WVtpao0KSM&feature=youtu.be
11. deinacrida_v2 11

    8 January 2012 at 9:46 am

    As to Iran and its historical relationship to our very own Mad Mullahs (and their colonial machinations) – here’s a very useful analysis of the ways and means of the current crop of MMs.

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