Posts Tagged ‘epmu’

“A new union to fight for the future of work”

Written By: - Date published: 5:00 pm, August 10th, 2015 - 48 comments

The two largest Labour Party affiliated unions are going to merge.

EPMU endorses Andrew Little for Labour leader

Written By: - Date published: 9:07 am, October 20th, 2014 - 67 comments

The EPMU have just announced they’re endorsing Andrew Little for Labour leader.

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.

Congratulations EPMU

Written By: - Date published: 8:19 am, May 8th, 2013 - 7 comments

The EPMU has won back millions of dollars of back-pay for workers at Tiwai point after taking a case at the employment authority.

Community ‘March for Work’ in Greymouth tomorrow

Written By: - Date published: 12:21 pm, September 3rd, 2012 - 33 comments

Spring Creek miners and their families will lead a community March for Work in Greymouth tomorrow calling on Solid Energy and the Government to secure the future of the town and ensure the mine stays open.

Anyone else make a connection?

Written By: - Date published: 12:34 pm, April 16th, 2010 - 34 comments

Last year, Telecom screws over its engineers. Decides to make them dependent contractors. EPMU wins real jobs for most of them. Better contract conditions for others. But a sh*tload of experienced engineers say screw Telecom and leave the industry. Then the faults start. XT becomes a laughingstock. Customers leave in droves. Next, profit warning.

There is power in a union

Written By: - Date published: 1:00 pm, December 10th, 2009 - 7 comments

About a month ago I used the Stats NZ Labour Cost Index to come up with the approximate distribution of payrises for unionised and non-unionised workers. I showed that most union members got payrises this year and most non-union members didn’t. Turns out that was pretty much on the money. The EPMU released figures yesterday […]

Industrial roundup: Telecom

Written By: - Date published: 1:03 pm, October 5th, 2009 - 1 comment

Visionstream completed its takeover of the Auckland and Northland patch on Thursday and it’s now become clear that they’ve failed to meet the terms of their contract with Telecom as workers have continued to hold out despite being made redundant. The situation is just crazy. Because of Telecom’s mismanagement there are now hundreds of redundant […]

Time for Telecom to come to its senses

Written By: - Date published: 5:43 am, September 11th, 2009 - 11 comments

Today, 200 Telecom engineers in Auckland and Northland will be fired. Not because there’s no work for them but because Telecom and it’s $7 million CEO want to cut ‘labour costs’  – that’s workers’ incomes, families’ livelihoods to you and me. Here’s how Telecom’s scam goes.  Currently, the engineers are employees of Telecom contractors Transfield […]

Telecom and the logic of capitalism

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, September 1st, 2009 - 69 comments

There’s nothing like a Tory Government in power and a monopolistic corporate flexing its muscle to remind you that capitalism is all about serving the bosses and screwing the workers. This Telecom dispute. The engineers are being made redundant from their current roles already in batches. On October 1, all the jobs will be gone […]

Fisking Farrar

Written By: - Date published: 12:30 pm, August 24th, 2009 - 24 comments

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 […]

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 […]

Pay equity video

Written By: - Date published: 3:30 pm, July 3rd, 2009 - 11 comments

A short video from the NZEI from Tuesday’s pay equity rally at Parliament. There are also a bunch of photos on flickr from the CTU, EPMU and TEU.

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 […]

Chutzpah

Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, September 16th, 2008 - 17 comments

When the EPMU released its investigation notes on Shawn Tan it was obvious that some right-wing bloggers would seize on the fact that Tan had been employed on a probationary agreement and stupidly claim that, therefore, the union was hypocritical for opposing National’s fire at will policy (which creates a 90 day no-rights period for […]

The truth behind the Shawn Tan affair

Written By: - Date published: 1:27 pm, September 10th, 2008 - 43 comments

For the last several weeks the EPMU has had to weather an extraordinary series of attacks from ACT, ACT candidate and EPMU employee Shawn Tan, and right-wing activist/Herald journalist Lincoln Tan. The union has been accused of breaching Tan’s human rights and racism but it has had to respond to these attacks with one hand […]

Guest Post: Herald like a blow-hard blogger on Tan

Written By: - Date published: 4:12 pm, August 29th, 2008 - 32 comments

After a fair summary of the facts as they stand, the Herald enters the realm of the right-wing blogger, always ready to paint its opponent with the worst possible spin, and then build on that as if on fact: ‘That version of events avoids, as it must, any hint of the suspension being politically motivated. […]

Workers demand decent work rights policies

Written By: - Date published: 9:54 am, August 28th, 2008 - 24 comments

6000 workers turned out in Manukau yesterday for the EPMU’s Wages Drive rally. With 25 events nation-wide over this month, which have attracted crowds from several hundred in little old Blenhiem to thousands in each of the cities, this is the largest series of political rallies in New Zealand this parliamentary term. The EPMU reports […]

Reflections on Shawn Tan

Written By: - Date published: 7:46 pm, August 23rd, 2008 - 57 comments

There’s a lot of heat but not much light in the debate about the EPMU’s suspension of Shawn Tan. What we know from the media is that Tan was told he had to seek approval from the union’s national executive in line with his collective agreement and the rules of the union and then failed […]

Workers stand up for their rights, Nats still evasive

Written By: - Date published: 4:04 pm, August 1st, 2008 - 48 comments

The EPMU launched its ‘Work Rights Wage Drive’ today with a rally in Christchurch. Despite the rain, over 1500 Kiwi workers turned out to stand up for their work rights and wages. This is just the first of 25 rallies the EPMU will be undertaking this month, in what will easily be the biggest series […]

EPMU cleared to campaign

Written By: - Date published: 10:21 am, July 30th, 2008 - 39 comments

The Electoral Commission has decided the EPMU can register as a third party under the Electoral Finance Act despite the National Party spending big bucks to try to stop them in the courts. Given the EPMU is a democratic organisation representing 50,000 Kiwi workers and the other unions (dairy workers, meat workers, maritime workers and […]

Electoral Finance Act victory for free speech

Written By: - Date published: 10:18 am, July 30th, 2008 - 8 comments

The Electoral Commission has ruled that several unions affiliated to the Labour Party are able to register as third parties under the Electoral Finance Act. Their registration was objected to initally by David Farrar, the National Party frontperson who is the principal behind the registered third party known, ironically, as the Free Speech Coalition. The […]

Reaction roundup: Nats’ work rights policy

Written By: - Date published: 11:14 am, July 25th, 2008 - 39 comments

Democratic, voluntary organisations of workers: Finsec: “Within the current framework, many workers have been able to achieve real wage increases like the 5% increase from Westpac our members have been offered this week…These pay rises have come as a result of staff being able to bargain collectively through their own independent union. National’s policies undermining […]

National’s campaign to muzzle union continues

Written By: - Date published: 4:14 pm, May 21st, 2008 - 139 comments

It seems National has succeeded in the first step of its campaign to muzzle the EPMU and the fifty thousand workers it represents. Over at the bog our mate Davey is crowing about the high court win that recognises the union as a legal person for the purposes of the act. This still means that […]

Nats’ attack on union hits High Court

Written By: - Date published: 9:46 am, May 14th, 2008 - 47 comments

Today National will be explaining to the High Court why it wants the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union’s 50,000 members to be denied the chance to campaign for their work rights this election. I’m expecting that they will continue to claim they are only “testing the law” but given the EPMU’s record of showing National […]