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notices and features - Date published:
8:52 am, October 24th, 2016 - 26 comments
Categories: Unions, workers' rights -
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https://player.vimeo.com/api/player.jsKatherine Mansfield left New Zealand when she was 19 years old and died at the age of 34.In her short life she became our most famous short story writer, acquiring an international reputation for her stories, poetry, letters, journals and reviews. Biographies on Mansfield have been translated into 51 ...
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Happy Labour day, but note that the fight is not really over as we find that equal pay, the weekend, minimum wages, child protection laws, injury prevention, the right to organise are steadily being eroded in the 21st century.
Not only that, the very idea of having a job, is under threat, with zero hour contracts (a job in title only) and self employed contracts becoming more prevalent.
This year my prediction is, that the National party and ACT with United Future and The Maori party go to try to destroy the teachers union as much as they can so they can corporatise education further.
Happy Labour day!
Do we need people to have jobs?
Do we want people living solely to make others richer?
Or do we want people to know what skills and chores need to be done to maintain society and all the rest of the time they get to do what they want with others in the community with the same interests?
Agreed, Save NZ – the resignation of Hekia may be just the first shot in a war on the teachers’ unions.
Bad as she was, (and she was really pretty abysmal) if someone like Seymour becomes minister, then God help all NZ’s kids.
And, on a similar theme, the Nats refusal to classify farming as a dangerous occupation, dancing to the tune of the farmers’ Union (!) has seen a rise in quad bike deaths. But hell, the ones killed are mostly just paid employees, so who cares?
The symbolism of Labour Day is even more pertinent these days than ever before.
I think this belongs here:
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2016/10/19/learning-from-helen/
Memorial service will be held for Helen this Friday and will be live broadcast, iirc
My whole team have been hanging out for this three day weekend for months.
We are just caning it.
God we could do with another public holiday in August or September.
”My team”? makes it sound like you are the boss, and if it is the case that you are the boss, you do know there is no law against just giving your team a paid day of at any time you like .
I’m not the boss.
But good on you for, I dunno, presuming. Or something
Thanks for playing
”Thanks for playing”
here to serve as always
‘Ant we the least in the oecd, in public holidays that is?
A few suggestions…
NZ leads the world day – 14th August
http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/petitions-with-9000-signatures-demanding-the-vote-for-women-presented-to-parliament
Goodness Day – 16th August.
http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/the-new-zealand-council-of-organisations-for-relief-overseas-corso-formed
Walking Day – 21st August.
http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/page/auckland-pedestrians-begin-%26%23039%3Bbarnes-dance%26%23039%3B
War is Hell day – 25th August.
http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/page/first-new-zealand-soldier-executed
Spies are us day – 9th September.
http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/big-brother-is-watching-legislation-is-passed-establishing-the-wanganui-computer-centre
Why did it take us so long day – 13th September.
http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/elizabeth-mccombs-elected-as-nzs-first-woman-mp
Bloody Good day – 14th September.
http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/from-the-cradle-to-the-grave-parliament-passes-the-social-security-act
Everyone deserves a home day – 18th September.
http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/the-first-state-house-in-miramar-wellington-is-officially-opened-by-michael-joseph-savage
ACTUALLY why is this not a public bloody holiday day – 19th September.
http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/womens-suffrage-day
Green is good day – 23rd September
http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/te-heuheu-tukino-gifted-to-the-crown-the-land-for-new-zealands-first-national-park-tongariro
Piss first day – 25th September
http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/first-grape-vines-planted-in-new-zealand-at-kerikeri
Dominion Day – 26th September. (note – it was once a holiday)
http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/lord-plunket-reads-the-royal-proclamation-granting-new-zealand-dominion-status
Concentration Camp day – 29th September
http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/page/nz-answers-empires-call-arms-south-africa
More I know, many more dates we could pick to celebrate, or actually just remember…
Te whakanui i te ra Reipa i te mahara Helen Kelly ki te aroha.
Position in Australia. In a nutshell for all whether they are nuts or not.
Underemployment phenomenon emerges with rise of part-time workforce
From ABC News Analysis By business editor Ian Verrender
Undated at heading. But updated 3 hours ago!
This has given rise to the phenomenon of underemployment, as part-time workers on average only spend 17 hours a week at work, versus 39 hours for full-time workers….
But the long-term ramifications of this shift are likely to play out in a manner that could hinder economic growth, put severe strain on our national finances and lead to a breakdown in social cohesion.
Never as a nation have we been less prepared for these challenges; the rise in long-term unemployment and underemployment and the intergenerational wealth transfer as younger skilled workers and particularly new graduates find themselves overqualified, under-utilised and poorly paid.
Instead, our business leaders are focused almost entirely on the elimination of penalty rates for the lowest paid in society — ironically so they can boost their own personal bonus payments — while the Government tears itself apart battling an imaginary foe in the shape of rampant union power.
The increasing trend towards part-time work and the rising insecurity that creates among the workforce is reflected in two key measures.
The first is that industrial disputes are at historically low levels; at about 100,000 lost days during 2015, well below the average 172,000 during the Australian Building and Construction Commission’s seven years of operation.
And the second is that despite scaremongering of a wages explosion just four years ago, wages growth is now the slowest on record, rising just 0.4 per cent in the first quarter of this year after decelerating through most of 2015.
+1 greywarshark – totally agree!!
Mighty picture ! Anyone know where copies are available (with or without message) ?
Haven’t been able to find the original but here’s a larger version.
http://img.picturequotes.com/2/41/40712/this-long-holiday-weekend-has-been-brought-to-you-by-the-blood-sweat-and-tears-of-the-labor-movement-quote-1.jpg
Bingo – it’s an image from the UK during the 1926 genera strike.
http://media.gettyimages.com/photos/the-great-strike-in-the-provinces-scene-at-crewe-a-demonstration-of-picture-id613500514
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crewe
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1926_United_Kingdom_general_strike
Couldn’t resist another clip.
Brought to you by Billy Bragg courtesy of the Thatcher govts stand on English coal miners.
And let us not forget the arch enemy’s of the unions in our modern era – neo liberal politicians and their rich backers . But the lessons learnt from history is that if you let them , the ruling monied elite will ALWAYS seek to destroy any collective bargaining and will ALWAYS seek to lobby and influence govt using their wealth and connections.
Hence why , now more than ever , we need unions, and people to see the extreme importance of belonging to one.
And if that can help in a groundswell to overturn the Employment Relations Act and the whole subtlety of putting workers on so – called ‘ contracts’ when in reality they are PAYE earners, then that would be a major milestone.
We have a long , long way to go to restore lost territory in industrial relations post 1984 in this country.
A long way to go.
Hey, can we perhaps remember that it was the Labour Party which recognised the role of unions and decided to celebrate Labour Day with a public holiday, and (more recently) it was Labour MP David clark who got the bill passed to Mondayise it. What took us so long?
“From the movement that brought you equal pay, the weekend, minimum wages, child protection laws, injury prevention, the right to organise …”.
Well Wayne Mapp in that other thread pretty much made it clear that he wants to chop all that, and and wants us to fend for ourselves the the jungle of contract law.
He’s a coward, too. Engages to a point then recoils and runs away when the questions get too hard. National party shill and fuckwit.
Yeah but he wants law of the jungle without machetes coming after him – like Thatcher “Red in tooth and claw” fiscally only though, the poor mustn’t fight back.
“I decided to leave this strange dreamer and move on.” H G Wells.
I remember the labour governments in the 20th century who brought in some good changes. By 2020 not a single opposition mp will have served in cabinet.
That’s you, isn’t it, [deleted]?.
[if that’s a guess at identity, please don’t – weka]
“By 2020 not a single opposition mp will have served in cabinet.”
That’s your ideal eh – a single party state. 19th century stuff. I suppose we should be grateful the the fuckwit-in-chief has only stuck himself in Oz with a state-funded plane full of suck-ups instead of a battleship.
Every time we try to credit a RWNJ with a skerrick of intelligence they come out with crap like this.
Yesterday afternoon one of those fundraisers from the Red Cross knocked on my door. Offended that the holiday should be so disrespected he didn’t get anything from me.
It occurs to me that if they had collectors rolled out across NZ that Monday may have brought in a record amount of cash for the Red Cross. (Or maybe it was just a contractor trying to make a target but still…wtf?)
You forgot about Rogernomics. It looks as though that will be the only legacy from the NZ Labour Party that endures.