Posts Tagged ‘darien fenton’

On the twelfth day of Christmas AFFCO gave two of its workers …

Written By: - Date published: 7:29 am, December 24th, 2015 - 189 comments

AFFCO clearly lacks any sense of a christmas spirit when dealing with its workers.

Jobs That Count

Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, December 17th, 2014 - 20 comments

The Meatworkers Union today launch a campaign for Jobs That Count – to try to get better conditions for these marginalised workers who face it all – seasonal work, dangerous jobs, casual and zero hours contracts and anti-union pressure.

Remembering forestry workers

Written By: - Date published: 8:17 am, April 28th, 2014 - 15 comments

The deaths of forestry workers are outrageous & sad.  Helen Kelly has campaigned extremely well for change.  An international day of remembrance yesterday, a procession on parliament today – a belated govt Bill that is an improvement, but does not go far enough.

Workers’ rights under attack

Written By: - Date published: 9:55 am, June 14th, 2013 - 85 comments

Key’s government is continuing its attack on workers’ rights, pay, conditions & collective bargaining with  Jami-Lee Ross’s ‘Strike Breaking’ Bill.    Darien Fenton, the CTU & EPMU say why it is wrong.  All parties and MPs should oppose this and other proposed changes to employment law.

Hypocrisy and bad spin

Written By: - Date published: 12:19 pm, November 8th, 2012 - 44 comments

NActUF use a lot of finely-honed, diversionary and distorting spin.  However, when debating 2 Private Members’ Bills yesterday, government MPs couldn’t even be bothered trying too hard; the hypocrisy was glaring and the spin clumsy – showing clearly the differences between left & right wing principles.

Free Public Libraries Bill

Written By: - Date published: 10:15 am, November 5th, 2012 - 19 comments

Darien Fenton’s “Keep Public Libraries Free” Bill will soon be getting its first reading in parliament. Public libraries are an important community resource. Keeping their resources and services free contributes to social inclusion and participatory democracy.

Nat’s oppose transparency (again)

Written By: - Date published: 7:50 am, September 20th, 2012 - 29 comments

Well it’s official. The government has no interest in allowing you to know how your money is being spent.

That’s been made clear in their opposition to Darien Fenton’s port transparency bill – a bill designed simply to make publicly owned ports subject to the Official Information Act.

When they talk about “accountability” and “responsibility” and “the social contract”, remember they’re talking about it for you. Not for them or their powerful mates.

Port transparency Bill read tomorrow

Written By: - Date published: 6:53 am, September 18th, 2012 - 14 comments

Right now council owned ports are specifically exempted from the Official Information Act. This means billions of dollars of public money tied up in ports around the country that are under the control of largely unaccountable boards. Darien Fenton has a Bill that designed to fix this and it’s being read tomorrow. It’s a common sense Bill. It will be interesting to see who backs it.

Port transparency bill drawn

Written By: - Date published: 7:57 am, August 17th, 2012 - 1 comment

Darien Fenton’s port transparency bill has been drawn and may well pass.

Good. The PoAL dispute has shown just how much this is needed.

A Couple of Privates

Written By: - Date published: 11:16 am, June 2nd, 2010 - 7 comments

John Carter was willing to help out a local business man late last year, however dodgy his desire to run his private business on public land against local wishes might have been. But when the people of Rodney are desperately calling out for a local MP to support their bill to be excluded from the SuperShitty, John has gone deaf. As have his fellow Rodney MPs John Key and Lockwood Smith.

The Brash budget

Written By: - Date published: 2:46 pm, May 22nd, 2010 - 17 comments

Colin James makes a good point in his latest column which talks about the rightward shift this budget has created: Longer term, the Budget points to smaller government. Core spending is projected to fall from 35 per cent of GDP now to 28 per cent in the early 2020s. The last National leader to talk […]

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.

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.

Back the Redundancy Protection Bill

Written By: - Date published: 11:37 am, December 23rd, 2009 - 26 comments

While most Kiwis are getting ready for Christmas there are tens of thousands who will be having a hard time this holiday season because they were made unemployed this year. And most of these workers will have had no redundancy protection to tide them over. That’s not good enough. It leaves workers and their families […]

Why the Redundancy Protection Bill matters

Written By: - Date published: 11:00 am, September 17th, 2009 - 23 comments

Over at Red Alert, Darien Fenton tells the story of just one of the thousands of workers currently being laid off without redundancy compensation. Really brings home how important it is for the Government to back the Redundancy Protection Bill: Tanya has worked for Chong Newztel for three years and some of her workmates had […]

Big issues in Telecom lines strike

Written By: - Date published: 4:45 pm, August 11th, 2009 - 32 comments

It’s great to see all the lines engineers standing up to Telecom’s attempt to strip away their employment rights and turn them into dependent contractors. I was lucky enough to catch the protest above yesterday (not my photo though), and there was a lot of passion from the guys. There’s a good reason for that […]

Govt set to deny low-paid workers basic rights

Written By: - Date published: 1:30 pm, March 4th, 2009 - 24 comments

The National government couldn’t hold off democracy forever, so today we are graced with the first members’ day of the new term. And if we had a pro-worker majority in the House, today would be day of celebration. Labour MP Darien Fenton’s Minimum Wage and Remuneration Bill is up, which would go towards ensuring all […]

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