Posts Tagged ‘council of trade unions’

Union peak bodies: a beacon of hope for all workers

Written By: - Date published: 11:02 pm, July 11th, 2020 - 21 comments

My view is that neither big nor small unions function particularly well in the modern-day workforce. There are many notable exceptions to this where both do very good work. But few have found the balance of good local support for members, tackling national and international issues and crucially not wasting considerable time and resource fighting another rival union encroaching on their patch.

The 2008 Go Wellington Bus Lockout

Written By: - Date published: 5:44 am, July 3rd, 2020 - 6 comments

20 days after being elected President of the Wellington Tramways and Public Passenger Transport Employees Union (we just called it Tramways), drivers at Go Wellington were locked out. The City nearly ground to a halt with thousands unable to get to work and traffic congestion a nightmare. Certain journalists were quick to call this a communist conspiracy.

Authentic participation underpins a safe workplace

Written By: - Date published: 5:30 pm, December 7th, 2017 - 12 comments

The CTU has consistently identified our culture of work and the style of management as a real challenge for New Zealand firms to improve their health and safety record. Health and safety is an inseparable part of the wider workplace culture.

National’s short lived status as a supporter of pay equity

Written By: - Date published: 9:06 am, April 21st, 2017 - 25 comments

The day after Kristine Bartlett’s and the SFWU’s well deserved pay equity victory the Government has released for consultation draft legislation the effect of which would be to stop similar victories occurring in the future.

Iain Lees-Galloway on the end of zero hour contracts

Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, March 11th, 2016 - 37 comments

Iain Lees-Galloway’s speech celebrating the end of zero hour contracts with a special thanks to the Unite Union, the Council of Trade Unions, the Greens and New Zealand First, Marama Fox, even Peter Dunne, and even Michael Woodhouse.

The Continuing Fight for Justice at Pike River

Written By: - Date published: 4:16 pm, February 25th, 2015 - 7 comments

Yesterday the families lost only a small bit of the battle for justice at Pike in an application to get some of the documentation on the Peter Whittall decision. It is clear from the decision that the process of filing itself caused MBIE to agree to release a number of the key documents.

1000 member challenge

Written By: - Date published: 11:06 am, January 11th, 2012 - 9 comments

My challenge (as part of my new life as expert communications / campaign / recruitment consultant to the stars) over the next 6 weeks is to encourage 1000 union members to bring their family into the union family for just $1 a week. That’s 1000 people who are already members of a union affiliated to the CTU to sign up their own family and whanau members to Together

Protest for pay equity

Written By: - Date published: 1:21 pm, June 22nd, 2009 - 47 comments

Earlier this year the National/ACT government announced it would be closing the Department of Labour’s Pay and Employment Equity Unit, which was set up by the previous government to address the 12% pay gap experienced by women workers. The excuse given by State Services Minister Tony Ryall was that ending discrimination and paying women what […]

Ralston

Written By: - Date published: 10:36 am, March 23rd, 2009 - 28 comments

Bill Ralston: Key used a great example at a Combined Trade Union conference on productivity when he pointed out only 10 luxury 7 series BMWs were sold in the whole of the USA last month. Ah, so that’s what CTU stands for. Why would anyone employ this fool as a commentator?

Third party returns

Written By: - Date published: 1:06 pm, March 19th, 2009 - 10 comments

The Electoral Commission has released the third party spending returns for the 2008 election campaign and it looks like for all National and ACT’s fears that the $120,000 third party cap would stop groups from being able to express themselves, only the Council of Trade Unions came close with a spend of around $100k. Other […]

Key on wages

Written By: - Date published: 8:09 pm, March 18th, 2009 - 93 comments

Key’s speech to the CTU today showed an interesting inight into how he thinks you lift wages. NZPA reports: He said it was not good enough for New Zealand to be in the bottom third of the OECD for per-capita incomes, but was cautious about tackling the issue by lifting minimum wage rates. “In reality, […]

CTU busts ACC spin

Written By: - Date published: 2:25 pm, March 13th, 2009 - 7 comments

Over the last week or so the Government, and Nick Smith in particular, have run a dishonest PR campaign to undermine ACC and soften up the public for cuts and eventual privatisation. In response, the Council of Trade Unions has put together a helpful fact sheet to set the record straight and bust some of […]

The Fire at Will campaign

Written By: - Date published: 3:48 pm, March 2nd, 2009 - 37 comments

It’s good to see the Council of Trade Unions offering solidarity to non-union workers who are subject to National’s fire at will law by providing free legal and industrial support. As Helen Kelly said on the news last night, when the Government fails in its basic duty to protect workers from arbitrary employer power then […]

What National’s Kiwisaver cuts mean for you

Written By: - Date published: 4:59 pm, December 22nd, 2008 - 38 comments

The Council of Trade Unions has done some research showing a worker with a Kiwisaver account will stand to lose as much as $200,000 in accumulated savings over their working life as a result of the National-led Government’s changes to the scheme. If you’re on $50k a year then National’s Kiwisaver cuts will cost you […]

All I want for Christmas

Written By: - Date published: 5:20 pm, December 10th, 2008 - 11 comments

This viral email from the Council of Trade Unions is doing the rounds. Make sure you click on through and tell John all we want for Christmas is fair work rights: On the twelfth day of Christmas, the Government gave to me… Just days into the new Government and already National has introduced laws which […]

Kiwisaver changes

Written By: - Date published: 9:20 pm, December 8th, 2008 - 16 comments

NZPA reports that the Government is looking at reviewing its changes to Kiwisaver so that workers who don’t earn enough to get the full $20 tax credit in a revised 2% scheme are not unfairly discriminated against. The changes are expected to cost $700 million over five years. This is a good measure, and in […]

CTU calls for fairer tax cuts

Written By: - Date published: 12:19 pm, December 1st, 2008 - 50 comments

The Council of Trade Unions is calling on National to re-jig its tax package to give it more balance. And fair enough too – despite the media narrative about National’s ‘moderate’, ‘centrist’ policies the figures show its tax package is actually incredibly regressive. In fact, you could argue it’s been explicitly designed to divert money […]

CTU critiques National’s employment policy

Written By: - Date published: 2:48 pm, July 29th, 2008 - 9 comments

Last week the Council of Trade Unions issued a devastating point-by-point critique of National’s ACC policy. Now they’ve followed up with an excellent and surprisingly balanced critique of National’s employment policy. When you compare the amount of detail the CTU has put into its critique with National’s policy bullet-points that barely even fill a page […]