workers’ rights

Categories under workers’ rights

This isn’t about growth, it’s class war

Written By: - Date published: 8:50 am, July 19th, 2010 - 67 comments

Does John Key have any evidence or official advice to back up his claim that taking away workers’ rights to basic fairness and natural justice promotes growth? Will Kiwi workers be as a result of taking away our job security and bargaining power?

Natonomics and Fire at Will

Written By: - Date published: 7:03 am, July 19th, 2010 - 157 comments

Extending Fire at Will and attacking union access to worksites undermines workers’ rights and is simply economic vandalism. Weaker work rights will tend to lead to lower wages (already falling under John Key’s watch), low wages lead to underinvestment and poor economic performance, and lack of work rights increases the risk in changing jobs making labour allocation less efficient.

Key’s desperate spin

Written By: - Date published: 3:10 pm, July 18th, 2010 - 70 comments

Key’s trying to spin his way out of taking responsibility for his attack on workers.

And he thinks union-bashing is the way to do it.

Perhaps he needs reminding that unions are just groups of workers who’re working together for a fair deal?

Crash National’s party update

Written By: - Date published: 11:51 am, July 18th, 2010 - 98 comments

National Party Conference Protest

Word is numbers at the protest are up to 500. Not bad for a protest organised in a couple of days. According to the Herald an EPMU flag-waving Sue Bradford and forty protesters broke through security. The changes have been officially announced. As well as the 90 day fire at will extension and cutting workers’ […]

It’s different when it’s your job

Written By: - Date published: 12:50 am, July 18th, 2010 - 47 comments

It was mainly young and poor workers on the minimum wage who were its victims of Fire at Will before. But now the middle class’s jobs will be on the knife edge too and they’re not happy. This will be an issue that causes National to bleed votes, especially if Labour and the unions organise a strong campaign. Middle NZ doesn’t care about poor workers but it’s different when it’s your job at risk.

Crash National’s Party – Protest for Fairness at Work

Written By: - Date published: 2:05 pm, July 16th, 2010 - 57 comments

At the National Party conference in Auckland this weekend, John Key is expected to announce drastic attacks on workers’ rights.

You can stand up and fight back against this madness by joining the protest at 10am on Sunday at Sky City Hotel in Auckland.

National’s attack on working Kiwis

Written By: - Date published: 6:56 pm, July 15th, 2010 - 248 comments

With National’s donations flagging something was needed to loosen the purse-strings.

It seems they’ve decided giving business an early present of wage-lowering laws will do the trick.

And every working Kiwi will pay the price.

The Failure of Neo-Liberalism

Written By: - Date published: 8:18 am, July 6th, 2010 - 49 comments

Neo-Liberalism is a failure; not just in human terms, but by its own measures. Since the concepts of neo-liberalism were taken up by Roger & Ruth 26 years ago neo-liberalism has driven down wages as a share of GDP, massively increased inequality and stripped workers rights.

Magical Budget causes imaginary closure of wage gap – Wong

Written By: - Date published: 9:57 am, July 2nd, 2010 - 25 comments

Pansy Wong on the gender wage gap: “It was the case that the gap was between men and women was at 12% since 2001. After 18 months of the National Government the pay gap is now 11%.” Um. No, it’s 12.3%. When are these Nats going to learn that in the age of the internet and publicly accessible statistics you can’t just lie and expect to get away with it?

Key proud to have imaginary Kiwis’ support

Written By: - Date published: 10:38 am, July 1st, 2010 - 30 comments

John Key wilted yesterday as he attempted to cover for the fact that most Kiwis will be worse off thanks to his GST hike and cuts to public services like early childhood education, which don’t eliminate costs, just pushes them on to families. He went wrong pretty quickly, claiming a couple called ‘Bill and Mary Smith’ had called to thank him, then admitting he had made them up.

Aussies mull ethical market signal

Written By: - Date published: 11:25 am, June 27th, 2010 - 10 comments

Australia is looking at quality mark for products from ethical supply chains.

We should too.

Money for tax cuts for rich, none for doctors’ pay

Written By: - Date published: 12:22 pm, June 21st, 2010 - 9 comments

Tony Ryall, like Anne Tolley, is facing a big fight over wages. The health budget is chock-full of cuts as it is and Ryall says there simply isn’t any money to give doctors pay rises as they and other workers face nearly 6% inflation next year. The government can find billions for tax cuts for the rich but not to pay doctors and teachers. Priorities.

The next attack on working Kiwis

Written By: - Date published: 10:34 am, June 11th, 2010 - 15 comments

According to Treasury, Kiwi workers’ combined incomes will be $1.5 billion lower when Key leaves office than when he entered. But the Nats aren’t done. The next stage is to attack holidays. The method of calculating sick and holiday is going to be changed to shaft shift workers. While the ‘choice’ to sell one week’s annual leave to the boss will see your work hours go up more than your pay.

Mondayise Anzac, Waitangi (& Matariki)

Written By: - Date published: 12:01 pm, June 8th, 2010 - 51 comments

The dearth of long weekends this year has made me feel cheated. And now with Queen’s Birthday over it’s a long wait till Labour weekend in October. That’s not fair dammit. It’s time to give Matariki its due and celebrate with a Monday off in July.

Working Kiwis aren’t lazy

Written By: - Date published: 11:39 pm, May 24th, 2010 - 74 comments

The Right claims that people who aren’t on high incomes are just lazy and need to work harder, and, so, are undeserving of a fair deal. It’s insulting, it’s false, it’s just another excuse for maintaining the wealthy’s privileged position. Most people who work long hours are on low and middle incomes. And there are hundreds of thousands of low income Kiwis wanting more work.

Closing the wage gap

Written By: - Date published: 7:44 am, May 19th, 2010 - 5 comments

Unions are closing the wage gap in the oil industry using collective action

Meanwhile the government is preparing to give rich individuals tax cuts and has been eroding the rights of workers.

Nats attack public service neutrality

Written By: - Date published: 12:55 am, May 13th, 2010 - 25 comments

I’ve been having a look at the new advice on the civil service code of conduct. It is a clear attempt by the Nats to make sure the civil service is ‘politically correct’ for their purposes. Perhaps they’re tired of getting official advice that says ‘don’t cut that, it’s good value for money’, ‘don’t fund that, it’s stupid’, and ‘don’t pass that law, it might cause more murders’.

Goff speech on Labour’s vision

Written By: - Date published: 1:47 pm, May 12th, 2010 - 72 comments

Phil Goff has delivered his speech on Labour’s economic vision ahead of the Budget. It’s a good one, filled with core Labour values and ideas that will get New Zealand moving ahead. Goff talks about fairer tax rather than tax cuts for the rich, better monetary policy, and investing in New Zealand’s future.

Pay rises for CEOs, pay cuts for workers

Written By: - Date published: 12:53 pm, May 7th, 2010 - 13 comments

The other day I wrote about pay rises for workers. 75% of non-union workers took a pay cut last year. Seems their bosses made off a lot better. Despite all the business collapses and the 21,000 lost jobs, half of all CEOs got a pay rise last year and the typical pay rise was a massive 5% (only 10% of workers got a 5%+ way rise). It’s the essence of class war.

Tide turns, a long way to go

Written By: - Date published: 12:52 pm, May 6th, 2010 - 28 comments

The unexpectedly large fall in unemployment is to be celebrated. It’s great that unemployment has fallen so much but 6% is an appallingly high rate of unemployment. It is not natural or normal – it only became normal under National in the 1990s and in the last year of the current government. We still have a long way to go to the sub-4% unemployment we so recently enjoyed.

Nats show their contempt for working Kiwis

Written By: - Date published: 10:04 am, May 6th, 2010 - 6 comments

Yesterday, Darien Fenton’s Redundancy Protection Bill was voted down by the Government. Disgraceful. The Nats added a kick in the teeth by having David Bennett lead their side of debate with a mad, disrespectful speech. Congratulations to Darien, Labour, the Greens, Progressives, the Maori Party, and the groups representing 350,000 Kiwi workers who fought for this. We’ll win next time.

Please, let this be the peak

Written By: - Date published: 8:52 am, May 6th, 2010 - 60 comments

The March quarter unemployment rate is out today. It should be back down below 7% from the appalling 7.3% that National let it rise to. My hope is to see it fall to at most 6.8%, that’ll represent 10,000 Kiwis back into work. But Bill English has hinted it won’t fall. If there is not a serious reduction in unemployment, we will know who to blame.

From bad to worse for workers

Written By: - Date published: 2:18 pm, May 4th, 2010 - 11 comments

While John’s off playing soldiers, things are getting worse and worse for Kiwi workers. Wages are falling for the first time in a decade. The average hourly wage was $25.80 when National came to power. Now, it’s $25.30. I had hoped unemployment would start falling about now but the signs are discouraging. Only unionised workers able to protect themselves from the storm.

So much for ‘ambitious for New Zealand’

Written By: - Date published: 12:35 pm, May 3rd, 2010 - 161 comments

A new report says that building the half a billion worth of new rail rolling stock for Auckland in New Zealand would boost GDP by $250 million, improve our current account deficit by over $100 million, add $70 million to government revenue, and create 1200 skilled jobs. But the Government just want the cheapest price for the rail cars, and that means going overseas.

Protection for workers in hard times

Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, May 3rd, 2010 - 32 comments

Darien Fenton’s Redundancy Protection Bill is before the House this week (provided National doesn’t cancel Private Members’ Day again). The Bill will give all working Kiwis some income protection if they lose their jobs, like people get in other developed countries. You can help make it happen.

Maori Party turns against workers

Written By: - Date published: 11:30 am, April 30th, 2010 - 5 comments

Labour’s Darien Fenton is a gutsy, tireless advocate for working Kiwis. She was left gobsmacked by the Maori Party’s decision to vote for weakening Kiwis’ rights to work breaks. Maybe there’s a cunning plan that the Maori Party’s backing of a party that wants higher unemployment, weaker work rights, and lower wages will see more Maori in better paid jobs with improved conditions.

Battlers vs billion dollar banks

Written By: - Date published: 11:56 pm, April 21st, 2010 - 33 comments

Finsec’s Andrew Campbell introduces the union’s Better Banking, a trans-Tasman campaign they’re running with their Aussie counterparts to get a better deal for bank workers and bank customers. Campbell notes the banks’ $1 billion profit in the last 3 months alone and asks “Have your fees gone down? Has your mortgage payment become more manageable?”

Paula Bennett prematurely opens the champagne, again

Written By: - Date published: 10:31 am, April 20th, 2010 - 8 comments

Paula Bennett is celebrating the fact that job ads are on the rise. The bad news is the numbers indicate like we are still, a year after the official end of the recession, not at the point where the economy is creating enough jobs to keep unemployment in check, let alone bring it down. Time to put away to bubbly, Paula, and get to work getting Kiwis back into jobs.

Anyone else make a connection?

Written By: - Date published: 12:34 pm, April 16th, 2010 - 34 comments

Last year, Telecom screws over its engineers. Decides to make them dependent contractors. EPMU wins real jobs for most of them. Better contract conditions for others. But a sh*tload of experienced engineers say screw Telecom and leave the industry. Then the faults start. XT becomes a laughingstock. Customers leave in droves. Next, profit warning.

Kiwis report future less bright under National

Written By: - Date published: 4:01 pm, April 6th, 2010 - 58 comments

In 2008, John Key was promising us a brighter future. 18 months on, we’re in that future he was talking about and Kiwis are reporting their lives are worse than they were before he came to power. 83% of Kiwis surveyed by ShapeNZ rated their quality of life as ‘good’ or better, down from 89% in 2008 and 92% in 2007. Key has a responsibility to live up to his promises

Nats fail on crime

Written By: - Date published: 2:07 am, April 4th, 2010 - 45 comments

Regular readers of The Standard will know that a primary driver of crime is joblessness. It’s no surprise, therefore, to see that crime went up in the last year. Fewer jobs to go around = more crime. Crime is a symptom of socio-economic distress. It is not, primarily, ‘bad’ people behaving badly because they are […]