Posts Tagged ‘workers’ rights’

Minimum wage rises good for workers

Written By: - Date published: 1:31 pm, December 18th, 2007 - 43 comments

Reports suggest that the government is set to raise the minimum wage to $12 an hour. Coming toward the start of 2008, this would mark the ninth rise in as many years. When it comes to income, one trick ponies John Key and National would like you to believe that the only thing that counts […]

Progress on new superunion

Written By: - Date published: 11:52 am, December 18th, 2007 - 33 comments

The NZ Herald reports the Service and Food Workers Union, the National Distribution Union and Unite have agreed in principle to merge into a new super-union. The new union will represent some of the lowest paid workers in the country such as cleaners, checkout operators, fast food workers and factory process workers, and encompasses three […]

National and the wage gap

Written By: - Date published: 2:24 pm, December 13th, 2007 - 74 comments

I see National’s complaining about the wage gap between New Zealand and Australia again. As usual they have no answers on what to do about it other than to blindly hope that tax cuts for the rich will lead to economic growth and somehow it’ll all trickle down into the ordinary worker’s pay packet. Ever […]

Petty politicking and the Xinyao tragedy

Written By: - Date published: 5:21 pm, December 10th, 2007 - 81 comments

Reuters reports that the death toll from China’s Xinyao mine tragedy has now surpassed the 100 mark after 50 rescue workers were sent in without training and never resurfaced. According to Chinese media the cause of the tragedy was the mine management’s failure to install a gas detection system and its storage of explosives in […]

Prats in the Nats on China’s miners

Written By: - Date published: 5:52 pm, November 15th, 2007 - 26 comments

How’s this for small-minded prejudice from National Party backbencher Kate Wilkinson in a press release today complaining about the $84,000 dollars for a Labour Dept to help provide health and safety training for Chinese coal miners: Ms Wilkinson says Kiwi taxpayers will clearly be surprised to learn that the New Zealand Government is effectively subsidising […]

Laila on unions

Written By: - Date published: 4:49 pm, November 12th, 2007 - Comments Off on Laila on unions

Laila Harre’s Bruce Jesson Memorial Lecture is now available in full over at Scoop. It’s titled Union Relevance in Aotearoa in the 21st Century, and while it’s nothing new to those of us in the movement it provides a good overview of the challenges unions face in rebuilding from the devastation wrought in the 1990s […]

National’s hoax on unemployed workers

Written By: - Date published: 11:32 am, November 12th, 2007 - 41 comments

Last week Stats NZ announced unemployment had dropped to a record low of just 3.5%, after reaching double-digit figures under National in the 90s. That reminded me of an old press release from Bill English just before the 1999 election where he called unemployment in the range of 3% “a hoax” and suggested 6% might […]

2008’s big issue?

Written By: - Date published: 12:47 pm, November 2nd, 2007 - 41 comments

An interesting piece in yesterday’s Molesworth and Featherston (off line): Labour will pick a fight over workplace law reform. Trevor Mallard is in there to promote a message of ‘higher wages through better industrial law’ along with a scare campaign that says National will cut pay and conditions. Now we’ve been saying work rights are […]

But what about wages?

Written By: - Date published: 12:19 pm, November 2nd, 2007 - 8 comments

NZCTU economist Peter Conway makes a good point about National’s spin in his latest Economic Bulletin. After highlighting the shonky statistics behind the party’s attempts to inoculate the 1990s with its “Joanna Average” story, he goes on to point out how disingenuous the party is being in its pitch: The disturbing part of all this […]

Labour: who’s gonna get it?

Written By: - Date published: 8:33 pm, October 30th, 2007 - 30 comments

Coming into an election when work rights is going to be a major issue, we’ve heard Ruth Dyson will be relinquishing her labour portfolio tomorrow. The big question is who’s going to pick it up? Across the ditch work rights has become the defining issue of the upcoming election and given National’s desperate attempts to […]

What have the unions ever done for us?

Written By: - Date published: 2:49 pm, October 25th, 2007 - 6 comments

(Hat tip: Robert Owen – via comments)

National: it’s not worth the pay cut

Written By: - Date published: 1:46 pm, October 19th, 2007 - 58 comments

The National Party are clearly worried. They’ve done pretty well so far with the populist rallying cry of tax cuts, but they always knew their record on wages would come up at some point. Because as National themselves are fully aware, while tax cuts might on the face of it put more money into workers’ […]

First woman CTU president

Written By: - Date published: 9:08 pm, October 17th, 2007 - 2 comments

Congratulations to Helen Kelly, the first woman to lead the Council of Trade Unions. Helen replaces Ross Wilson, who’s been CTU President since 1999 (and who must now go on to head the ACC surely?), and together with Secretary Carol Beaumont and Maori Vice Pres Sharon Claire present a formidable trio at the apex of […]

Aussie workers worse off under Howard

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, October 17th, 2007 - 47 comments

A new report (PDF) by the University of Sydney shows Aussie workers are doing markedly worse under a Howard government. His desperate bid to buy them back this week with the offer of tax cuts doesn’t address the deep unfairness they’re being subjected to by his doublespeak-ish “Work Choices” legislation. The Australia@Work study, published this […]

National’s cynical attack on disabled workers

Written By: - Date published: 1:14 pm, October 10th, 2007 - 7 comments

History tells us the Nats will use any excuse they can to undermine people’s work rights, but this is low even for them. Desperate for an angle to oppose the extension of minimum wage rights to disabled workers, National hit on an idea: argue that paying disabled workers the legal minimum is actually bad for […]

Port strike

Written By: - Date published: 10:33 am, October 3rd, 2007 - 2 comments

In case anyone hasn’t noticed, the Ports of Auckland have been ground to a halt by strike action from 250 members of the Maritime Union. These guys are on as little as $13 an hour and have had their pay negotiations stalled by the company for nearly a year, so you can hardly blame them […]

NDU, SFWU and Unite to form super-union

Written By: - Date published: 2:23 pm, September 26th, 2007 - 9 comments

I was wondering when this was going to break. From Molesworth and Featherston this morning (offline, subscription only): Two private-sector unions are poised to join forces, potentially creating a major new force in industrial relations. Sources say that the Service and Food Workers’ Union and the National Distribution Union reached a heads-of-agreement last week over […]

Subway cheese conspiracy

Written By: - Date published: 10:46 am, September 21st, 2007 - 1 comment

Some of you might remember an incident at Subway in Dunedin earlier this year. A young woman who worked there was fired in after management accused her of stealing a free staff drink after she shared it with her friend. They had her arrested and charged with theft. The news traveled widely, there was a […]

Unite ends youth rates at McDonalds

Written By: - Date published: 1:11 pm, September 12th, 2007 - Comments Off on Unite ends youth rates at McDonalds

Congratulations to Unite for ending youth rates at McDonalds. Not that you’ll get that story from the media coverage, which gives the impression McDonald’s just decided to give up youth rates to be nice and fails to even mention the role of union campaigns like Supersize My Pay, Youth Rates Suck or Endyouthratesnow. Is it […]

Fairer pay for youth workers

Written By: - Date published: 12:21 pm, September 6th, 2007 - Comments Off on Fairer pay for youth workers

The Herald has the story: Workers aged 16 and 17 will earn the adult minimum wage once they have been in the job three months or worked 200 hours under a law change yesterday. Currently, those under 18 must be paid 80 per cent of the adult minimum wage. But that will change from April […]

He’s whatever you want him to be – except if you’re a worker

Written By: - Date published: 2:39 pm, September 5th, 2007 - Comments Off on He’s whatever you want him to be – except if you’re a worker

John Key’s swallowed a lot of rats to make National look electable: nuclear free, war in Iraq, fighter jets, paid parental leave, climate change etc,etc. But you can always trust a Tory to stay true to type over the one thing that they care about more than anything – cutting workers’ pay and conditions. It’s […]

Stood up, fought back

Written By: - Date published: 12:04 am, September 4th, 2007 - 1 comment

The National Distribution Union‘s put a together a bit of a clip showing some of the struggles its members have been through over the past year. And what a year it’s been. Faced with a month-long supermarket lockout, an attempt by National to strip them of their work rights, the collapse of Feltex and two […]

Gateway Hotel workers still standing strong

Written By: - Date published: 12:15 pm, August 29th, 2007 - Comments Off on Gateway Hotel workers still standing strong

Just got these photos in from the picket line at the Airport Gateway Hotel in Auckland, where a dozen low-paid staff have now been locked out for nearly a month for wanting a collective agreement. As you can see from the photos they’re still in high spirits, but after a month without pay they need […]

Trouble at the Gateway Hotel

Written By: - Date published: 2:58 pm, August 24th, 2007 - 3 comments

One of the worrying trends in industrial relations in recent times has been employers’ rediscovery of the lockout as a tool to break the power of organised labour and drive down wages. This is an extreme weapon, designed to starve the workforce into submitting to mangement’s demands, and is based on the brutal logic that […]