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Here we go again at PoAL

Written By: - Date published: 2:17 pm, September 16th, 2012 - 42 comments

Things are going to get tough at the Ports of Auckland again.

Which means two things – the workers will win again, and they and the people of Auckland will pay the price.

In the meantime the has-been corporate warriors who are trashing the port will walk away with their bonuses.

A decent policy

Written By: - Date published: 6:23 pm, September 9th, 2012 - 279 comments

David Shearer’s policy of free meals for low decile schools is a bloody good one – there are too many kids that are going to school hungry and suffering setbacks because of it.

But remember, this should only be seen as a stop-gap measure.

Port transparency bill drawn

Written By: - Date published: 7:57 am, August 17th, 2012 - 1 comment

Darien Fenton’s port transparency bill has been drawn and may well pass.

Good. The PoAL dispute has shown just how much this is needed.

Too far

Written By: - Date published: 8:05 pm, August 7th, 2012 - 394 comments

It looks like someone from within Labour’s top team* has decided to have a real nasty go at David Cunliffe via Duncan Garner.

A poor investment

Written By: - Date published: 11:07 am, June 28th, 2012 - 60 comments

Now the legislation to sell our assets has passed, the question on lefties’ minds is whether it’s more principled to refuse to buy them or to spend the money to ensure they don’t get sold offshore.

What’s not getting a lot of attention is whether they’re actually the great investment our Prime Minister keeps insisting they are…

ACC – perverse incentives and sociopathic policy

Written By: - Date published: 8:55 am, June 22nd, 2012 - 90 comments

Kevin Hague has discovered ACC managers are getting bonuses for kicking people off the scheme.

That’s not surprising – this government beats up on the weak almost as much as it sucks up to the powerful.

Go nowhere budget

Written By: - Date published: 4:20 pm, May 24th, 2012 - 48 comments

As expected Bill English has served up a budget with no greater focus than reducing a government deficit that really doesn’t matter much at all.

Of course he’s doing this at the expense of a whole lot of things that do matter – our kids’ education, our families’ health, our retirements.

Insult to injury

Written By: - Date published: 10:33 am, May 20th, 2012 - 37 comments

Not content with selling your assets off, National has put aside $120,000,000 of your money to tell you that you should like it.

And, just to add more salt to the wound, Bill English has described the cost as “low by market standards”.

I’d love to see wages drop

Written By: - Date published: 7:32 am, May 15th, 2012 - 125 comments

Remember when John Key said he’d love to see wages drop? Yep? How about when Bill English claimed our low wages were our competitive advantage. Uh-huh.

Well the changes they’re bringing in to undermine working Kiwis’ bargaining power will do exactly that.

The real reason for the secret ballot law

Written By: - Date published: 7:35 am, May 11th, 2012 - 54 comments

The tories are all puffed up about finally getting their secret ballot law passed. It’s about freedom they say, they’re on the side of the working man.

Thing is it’s not. And they most certainly aren’t.

Dodgy old Banksie

Written By: - Date published: 11:40 am, April 28th, 2012 - 208 comments

It’s been revealed that Banks took fifty thousand dollars for his campaign from Kim Dotcom. Given the subsequent furore around Dotcom, the would be slightly embarrassing in its own right but it’s been considerably exacerbated by the fact it came in two separate payments – as requested by Banks so he could keep the donation anonymous.

Nat’s sell Kiwis out for their mates (again)

Written By: - Date published: 9:05 am, April 27th, 2012 - 188 comments

Remember way back when the government were changing the law to take rights off film workers and increase tax breaks for Warners? It was all about keeping Kiwi jobs they said.

Well it turns out that at the same time they were doing this they were also making promises to Peter Jackson that those Kiwi jobs would be given to imported workers.

Key’s vicious cycle

Written By: - Date published: 12:19 pm, April 21st, 2012 - 94 comments

If anything has marked John Key’s tenure as PM it’s his use of his personal brand to run his cabinet.

But what happens to his control as that brand runs out of steam?

Reading the tea-leaves

Written By: - Date published: 10:42 pm, April 19th, 2012 - 69 comments

Alistair Cameron is heavily tipped to become Labour’s Chief of Staff. That’s a change that would signal even bigger change to come.

Let’s hope that bigger change is done openly and with party members’ input.

The PoAL dispute and facilitation

Written By: - Date published: 6:43 pm, April 12th, 2012 - 114 comments

Ports of Auckland has called for facilitated bargaining.

How might this play out?

Getting some accountability at PoAL

Written By: - Date published: 6:51 am, April 5th, 2012 - 80 comments

Darien Fenton has a bill in the ballot designed to put public ports back on the OIA.

It’s about time – there’s been no accountability or transparency at our ports for too long.

It will be interesting to see the government’s response.

Collins’ last stand

Written By: - Date published: 6:55 pm, April 2nd, 2012 - 46 comments

It looks like Collin’s has got herself into a bind with her defamation case and Key’s not gonna get her out.

And why would he? Her flailing offers an excellent distraction from the real PR damage of this dispute – the fact his government is only interested in looking after its mates.

0900 LOCKOUT

Written By: - Date published: 3:22 pm, April 1st, 2012 - 33 comments

While the PoAL dispute has been raging a thousand meatworkers are entering their fifth week of lockout at Talleys-owned AFFCO.

There’s a war on workers on across the country at the moment but you can help fight back.

Key people

Written By: - Date published: 10:02 pm, March 29th, 2012 - 50 comments

The people named as Bronwyn Pullar’s support team seem to be the same people that helped John Key into the National Party and then into the leadership.

Like they say – it’s not what you know…

What a jerk

Written By: - Date published: 7:41 am, March 27th, 2012 - 36 comments

After months of attacking the media and bringing the weight of the state against a freelance cameraman, John Key is “turning the other cheek”.

What a jerk

What next at PoAL?

Written By: - Date published: 8:02 am, March 22nd, 2012 - 167 comments

Despite the court making them return to the bargaining table, PoAL Chair Richard Pearson seems to fail to understand some basic principles of employment law.

His comments on morning report suggest he’s either ignorant of some basic legal issues or still has no regard for good faith bargaining.

I’d suggest that either case indicates there’s a need for the council to step in and put some responsible adults in charge of this company.

Key’s reshuffle bad news for working Kiwis

Written By: - Date published: 8:03 am, March 16th, 2012 - 64 comments

The reshuffle announced yesterday effectively made Steven Joyce the new Minister of Labour.

Call me paranoid but I’m thinking that putting the Government’s bully-boy in charge of the rights of working Kiwis may not bode well for employment relations over the next few years.

Pearson goes to ground over privacy scandal

Written By: - Date published: 7:27 am, March 15th, 2012 - 32 comments

It’s a bit rich that PoAL are claiming they’re “investigating” online privacy breaches now when it’s obvious they’ve been colluding with Cameron Slater for months.

It’s also interesting that the limited “no comment” comment PoAL has issued has been in Tony Gibson’s name rather than Richard Pearson’s.

Port thuggery

Written By: - Date published: 6:51 am, March 14th, 2012 - 168 comments

Looks like Ports of Auckland have been unlawfully passing workers’ private information to Cameron Slater.

It’s just another example of the intimidation and thuggery the port management is becoming well known for.

Some people just don’t learn

Written By: - Date published: 1:17 pm, March 11th, 2012 - 83 comments

POAL is on the backfoot industrially, legally, and in terms of public relations.

God only knows what kind of hubris made Gibson and his board think they could get away with attacking their workers like this.

It seems that no matter how many times these corporate ratbags get their arses handed to them by union members they just don’t seem to learn.

Maiden speeches continued

Written By: - Date published: 7:14 am, February 16th, 2012 - 2 comments

Felix recommended Denise Roche’s maiden speech and I can see why.

It’s good to see some strong left voices entering parliament.

Maiden speeches

Written By: - Date published: 8:33 pm, February 15th, 2012 - 15 comments

Haven’t had time to watch many maiden speeches but of the few I saw Andrew Little’s was a stand out.

I’m sure we’ll be putting a few more up over the next few days.

POAL sleaze

Written By: - Date published: 7:26 am, February 3rd, 2012 - 80 comments

I’ve heard that POAL has private detectives following union officials around and taking photos.

I’d imagine that’s where “scoops” like this are coming from.

Is it just me…

Written By: - Date published: 6:49 pm, January 31st, 2012 - 21 comments

…or is National’s “Ethnic Team” so tokinist it’s kinda racist in it’s own right?

I mean it’s not like there’s a facebook group for National’s Old White Men Team.

Oh wait, there is.

In the frame

Written By: - Date published: 10:25 am, January 25th, 2012 - 84 comments

Labour’s contrition is starting to look like weakness.

Rather than reinforcing their opponents’ framing of issues they need to articulate their own progressive values with authority.

If they fail to do this the momentum gained by their new leader will be lost.

John Key and POAL

Written By: - Date published: 1:26 pm, January 23rd, 2012 - 43 comments

With the house due to sit in a couple of weeks John Key’s people will be weighing up their response to the POAL dispute.

My guess is they’ll base their decision on what they can get away with politically.

Whatever they do it’ll be no good for the port workers and certainly no good for Key’s goal of closing the wage gap with Australia.

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