Search Results

1. 

   A(nother) bad day for the dynamic duo

   Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 9:05 am, April 13th, 2012 -  40 comments
   Categories: capitalism, class war, national, workers' rights
   Tags: cameron slater, maritime union, meatworkers union, National's civil war, ports of auckland, simon lusk, talleys, useful idiots

   It was a bad day yesterday for the ‘heavy hitters’ of the Collins faction, Slater and Lusk. First, Ports of Auckland admitted supplying them with a workers’ private details. Then, the smear on the Meatworkers that they had orchestrated with Talley’s was shot down by the SFO in record time. Finally, Michelle Boag gave them a public serve on RNZ, fueling civil war talk.

2. 

   Another classic Slater/Lusk own goal

   Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 7:08 am, April 12th, 2012 -  170 comments
   Categories: Unions
   Tags: cameron slater, simon lusk, smears, talleys, useful idiots, useless fucks

   Slater/Lusk have been running a series of posts on the finances of the unions. Pretty weak stuff. All Slater/Lusk have proven is that they don’t understand the corporate structure of unions, they can’t read accounts, and they can’t do research. Still, you knew they were seeding something. And then came the Talleys’ complaint to the SFO about the Meatworkers’ Union.

3. 

   AFFCO to extend lockout to avoid holiday pay

   Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 7:02 am, April 4th, 2012 -  81 comments
   Categories: boycott, class war, workers' rights
   Tags: AFFCO, lockout, talleys

   Talley’s has sunk to a new low in the AFFCO lockout. Not content with trying to starve out 1,000 workers and force them to accept 20% pay cuts, Talley’s-owned AFFCO meatworks are planning to lockout hundreds more workers on the Easter statutory holidays – just to save on paying its workers holiday leave. It’s a despicable, and hopefully illegal, move.

4. 

   0900 LOCKOUT

   Written By:  IrishBill -  Date published: 3:22 pm, April 1st, 2012 -  33 comments
   Categories: class war
   Tags: AFFCO, lockout

   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.

5. 

   Bosses move to drive wages down

   Written By:  Zetetic -  Date published: 10:30 am, February 27th, 2012 -  89 comments
   Categories: capitalism, class war, wages, workers' rights
   Tags: nurses, ports of auckland, talleys

   John Key said he “would love to see wages drop“, and his government has achieved that but they’re just getting started. This is the year when the gloves come off. Ports of Auckland is trying to slash its wage bill by 20%. Talley’s-AFFCO is locking out 750 workers indefinitely. And DHBs are trying to scare nurses ahead of their pay negotiations with the spectre of job cuts.

6. 

   Slave fishing – NZ’s shame

   Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 6:48 am, October 25th, 2011 -  13 comments
   Categories: Environment, ETS, food, human rights, sustainability, workers' rights
   Tags: fishing industry, slave labour

   You won’t find much praise for Talley’s on this site. But, fair dues, they harvest their fish with Kiwi crews and have this to say on slave fishing: “If it is uneconomic to harvest a New Zealand resource under New Zealand labour conditions and costs then it is not a resource. Blood diamonds and Asian textile sweatshops use the same justification”

7. 

   US says no to fox guarding NZ meat

   Written By:  Tammy Gordon -  Date published: 2:28 pm, November 17th, 2010 -  11 comments
   Categories: economy, national/act government, uncategorized
   Tags:

   I know it’s in National’s DNA to fight regulation where ever they find it but it looks like the meat industry and government ‘watch dog’ MAF’s Food Safety Authority may have bitten off more than they can chew with their proposal to do away with independent  meat inspectors in the country’s freezing works. Seems a 6 month trial to […]

8. 

   Poor managers hurting NZ

   Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 1:23 pm, October 14th, 2009 -  22 comments
   Categories: business, capitalism
   Tags:

   What a sad state the management workforce of this country is in. Just think about these recent stories: Open Country, locking out their workers, employing scab labour, creating an environmental mess and blaming it on the workers they locked out – all because the workers joined the union and wanted some guaranteed hours. The appalling way that […]

9. 

   Drivers locked out for following their contracts

   Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 12:15 pm, October 6th, 2009 -  51 comments
   Categories: public transport, workers' rights
   Tags: infratil, nz bus

   Yesterday, around 1,000 bus drivers and support staff issued noticed to their employer, NZ Bus owned by Infratil, that from Thursday they would be working to rule in protest over the company’s unacceptable pay offer. Essentially, the company wants to combine several existing collective agreements by keeping the weakest elements of each. Sure, it’s offered […]

10. 

    Industrial roundup: Open Country

    Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 1:19 pm, October 5th, 2009 -  4 comments
    Categories: workers' rights
    Tags: dwu, open country cheese, talleys

    Last week the Employment Court decided that Talleys-owned Open Country was acting illegally in locking out its unionised staff. The Court upheld the right of workers to demand a collective agreement and stated it was illegal for the Talleys to lock them out rather than attempt collective negiotations. Despite this, the lockout continues and the […]

11. 

    No bull

    Written By:  John A -  Date published: 8:51 pm, October 4th, 2009 -  1 comment
    Categories: uncategorized
    Tags:

    An interesting take on the Crafars from Bernard Hickey in the Herald. He starts off: The Crafar Farms tragedy is a microcosm of many of the things wrong about our business and investment culture. Then goes on to say: We believe land is the best investment always. We are happy to load up with debt, […]

12. 

    Open Country shows contempt for the law

    Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 10:54 am, September 30th, 2009 -  8 comments
    Categories: workers' rights
    Tags: armin lindenberg, dairy workers union, open country cheese, talleys

    The Talleys and National Party linked Open Country Cheese continues to show its contempt for the law as it attempts to break the Dairy Workers Union. You’ll be aware that Open Country laid down a six week lockout notice to try and force workers to leave the union. So far it hasn’t worked and on […]

13. 

    Open Country now assaulting workers

    Written By:  Guest post -  Date published: 3:00 pm, September 23rd, 2009 -  68 comments
    Categories: workers' rights
    Tags: dairy workers union, lockout, open country cheese, talleys

    The Talleys-owned Open Country Cheese dispute took a new turn today after it was revealed that a senior manager, not content with just bullying workers, has assaulted one of them. Here’s what Giovanni Moana, the worker concerned, had to say: “I was told to put my head through a window in the packing room at […]

14. 

    Farmers Weekly on Open Country

    Written By:  notices and features -  Date published: 1:45 pm, September 23rd, 2009 -  11 comments
    Categories: cartoons, workers' rights
    Tags: nz farmers weekly, open country cheese, talleys

    Reader sent in this cartoon from the latest NZ Farmers Weekly. Things have got to be bad for Open Country when even the farming press is turning on them.

15. 

    Nat-linked company tries to bully workers

    Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 5:39 pm, September 22nd, 2009 -  15 comments
    Categories: workers' rights
    Tags: lockout, open country cheese, talleys

    The Open Country Cheese dispute is getting nastier by the day. The workers began their eight-day strike last week. The Talley’s and National Party-linked company responded by bringing in strike-busters (farmers, apparently) to take the workers’ place, which is illegal. On Saturday, one of these untrained strike-breakers allowed polluted sludge from the factory to flow […]

16. 

    Open Country polluting our rivers too

    Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 12:16 pm, September 19th, 2009 -  20 comments
    Categories: Environment, workers' rights
    Tags: dairy workers union, james ritchie, open country cheese, talleys

    The Talleys and National Party-linked Open Country Cheese is currently trying to run its factory without its workers as it attempts to bust the union and casualise its workforce. They’ve said they’re running the factory (arguably illegally) with local farmers and strike-breakers flown in from other parts of the country. Problem is, these people aren’t […]

17. 

    Corporate bully-boys step it up a level

    Written By:  Marty G -  Date published: 6:14 am, September 18th, 2009 -  16 comments
    Categories: business, capitalism, class war, Unions, workers' rights
    Tags: class warfare, dairy, dairy investment fund, talleys

    The Open Country Cheese dispute is underway. Workers are striking against the bosses’ attempts to casualise their hours and reduce their conditions. They are not striking for huge pay increases, despite the lies of Open Country. Open Country Cheese, part-owned by the notorious Talleys and tied to various National MPs via the Dairy Investment Fund […]

18. 

    Lockout at Bridgeman Concrete

    Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 10:45 am, September 16th, 2009 -  14 comments
    Categories: national/act government, workers' rights
    Tags: bill english, bridgeman concrete, john key, lockout, ndu

    Last week I wrote: We’re seeing a new pattern in work relations emerging. The big employers, emboldened by having their party in power and using the recession as an excuse, are attacking workers’ pay and conditions. Now, on the same day Talley and National-linked Open Country Cheese begins shutting out its workers and illegally using […]

19. 

    National-linked dairy company threatens six week lockout

    Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 12:26 pm, September 11th, 2009 -  31 comments
    Categories: workers' rights
    Tags: armin lindenberg, dairy investment fund, john key, lockout, open country cheese, talleys

    There’s a nasty dispute brewing at Open Country Cheese involving a six week lockout threat, some highly aggressive anti-union PR, calls for the Government to gut labour laws and major links between the company and senior National Party figures. It’s early days yet, but this could be a big one. Open Country Cheese was founded […]

20. 

    Fisking Farrar

    Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 12:30 pm, August 24th, 2009 -  24 comments
    Categories: labour, workers' rights
    Tags: david farrar, epmu, fisking

    I don’t know what it is about the word “Labour” that the right finds so hard to understand. David Farrar has a piece up today attacking the Labour Party for backing the Telecom lines engineers, who are members of the EPMU. The crux of his argument is that Labour should keep politics out of industrial […]

21. 

    Questions

    Written By:  Tane -  Date published: 12:24 pm, April 16th, 2009 -  27 comments
    Categories: election funding, labour
    Tags: chris carter, david parker, nz herald, road transport forum, shane jones

    We should expect National as the political arm of business to surround itself with dirty money and conflicts of interest. As a self-proclaimed social democratic party Labour has no such excuse. So: – What is Labour’s education spokesperson Chris Carter doing accepting election donations from a private college? – Why is Shane Jones accepting money […]

22. 

    Same old faces, same old tactics

    Written By:  IrishBill -  Date published: 2:06 pm, January 23rd, 2008 -  251 comments
    Categories: dpf, election funding, same old national
    Tags: cameron slater, donations, dpf, election funding, Electoral Finance Act, free speech coalition, hollow men, john minto, MMP, same old national

    Well it looks like Free Speech Coalition founder Cameron Slater has taken a break from stalking John Minto and photoshopping underage bloggers’ faces onto porn and decided to finally publish the Coalition’s updated donors list (and only a month after he said he would). Interestingly, a “P Shirtcliffe” is listed as having donated $5000. Now […]

23. 

    They just don’t learn

    Written By:  Tane -  Date published: 1:38 pm, January 22nd, 2008 -  109 comments
    Categories: dpf, election funding, national
    Tags: dpf, election funding, national

    I see the Free Speech Coalition hasn’t learned anything from the ramshackle PR fiasco that was their launch and have posted up another billboard in Invercargill today, this time featuring Robert Mugabe and criticising the government’s ‘silencing’ of Mayor Shadbolt, who is ironically one of the least silent people in the country at the moment. […]

24. 

    Shadbolt campaign funded by Hollow Men

    Written By:  IrishBill -  Date published: 7:02 pm, January 18th, 2008 -  96 comments
    Categories: election funding
    Tags: don brash, election funding, journalism, national, talleys, tim shadbolt

    Remember how I asked who was funding Tim Shadbolt’s campaign to “bring down the government”? Turns out the Southland Times was interested too and they’ve found out his move to deliberately break electoral law is being propped up by the Talley brothers, who appear to have a bit of a history of that themselves. Now […]