First woman CTU president

Written By: - Date published: 9:08 pm, October 17th, 2007 - 2 comments
Categories: workers' rights - Tags:

helen-small.jpgCongratulations to Helen Kelly, the first woman to lead the Council of Trade Unions. Helen replaces Ross Wilson, who’s been CTU President since 1999 (and who must now go on to head the ACC surely?), and together with Secretary Carol Beaumont and Maori Vice Pres Sharon Claire present a formidable trio at the apex of the union movement. Go the comradettes!

And I bet Helen’s dad Pat Kelly is up there in union paradise – where he so surely belongs – proud as he could be, with his thumbs tucked into his braces singing “When red, red robin comes bob, bob bobbing along”.

2 comments on “First woman CTU president ”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. Wodger 1
    18 October 2007 at 9:18 am

    Brethrens set to take battle to ballot box

    The Exclusive Brethren movement is gearing up for a major push to get more people to vote in next year’s election, a move which is likely to help National’s efforts to return to power.

    At a press conference yesterday in Wellington, the Exclusive Brethren Council unveiled a political strategy which focused heavily on family rights, sustainable business development and a reduction of the nanny state.

    Council president Sam Dickson said the campaign around next year’s election would be more public than before, with an emphasis on getting the affiliated church members to talk about politics and then convince others to get involved as well.

    An audit is under way to assess the campaigning resources of each church, and is also looking at the future use of outbound calling facilities.

    While the Exclusive Brethren is not affiliated to any political party, Mr Dickson’s speech made it clear that the organisation’s views are not in line with the Labour Party’s.

    “Our message provides a vision of a fair society where amongst other things the state does not regulate every aspect of peoples lives, social services like health and education are available to all regardless of income, and New Zealand is a peaceful society where all are treated with respect and are treated equally,” Mr Dickson said.

    “This is the vision held by most New Zealanders for this country and is inconsistent with the vision we have been hearing recently from the Labour Party.”

    Asked if the Brethren planned to campaign overtly for National, Mr Dickson said the plan was to campaign on the three core issues in the Brethren strategy, and to point out which political party best fitted that vision.

    “There could be a number of political parties that support our political issues,” he said.

    “We’ll be giving people analysis and, as issues come out, we’ll be pointing out what the implications of those are.”

    The Exclusive Brethen movement played a major role in Labour’s success in the 2005 election when it initially obscure that it was the source of material pointing out problems with Green and Labour policies.

    Mr Dickson vowed that the same thing would not happen again, noting that “we tripped up by not disclosing our involvement & this time we will be totally open”.

    Asked if the EFB would be able to conduct the campaign it wanted to under the provisions of the controversial Electoral Finance Bill – which places restrictions on campaigning by so-called third parties & Dickson said it would be possible.

    “This will be about talking to our members, which we’ll be entirely able to do,” she said.

  2. robinsod 2
    18 October 2007 at 9:34 am

    That’s really funny wodger – so just when did the EB announce they were running a political campaign? Oh yeah, that’s right they didn’t.