Time for change

Written By: - Date published: 10:02 am, October 12th, 2012 - 19 comments
Categories: economy, leadership, national, Unions - Tags:

Unions, businesses, and political parties will come together today to form a united front on the need for change to save manufacturing in New Zealand. National, with its tin ear, refuses to acknowledge the problem. There’s an emerging consensus that we need to turn away from the failed neoliberal model. If National wants to stand isolated against that consensus, that’s their problem.

I’m hugely encouraged that everyone is getting together and saying that not only is change necessary but that it is possible. It will mean discarding some of the doctrine and failed rules of the last 25 years but what sacrifice is that? New Zealand had nothing to lose but the chains that we put on ourselves.

19 comments on “Time for change ”

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  1. captain hook 1
    12 October 2012 at 10:37 am

    what side are you on?
    there once was a union maid.
    and she was never afraid.
    of the goons and the geeks.
    and the company finks.
    unionise now!

  2. PlanetOrphan 2
    12 October 2012 at 10:47 am

    Now there’s something positive for the weekend 🙂
    It’s definitely possible, why’d National want too break the Unions in the first place?
    But waiting for the election or forcing a snap election is the best answer.
    People can’t afford too strike, the Gnats’ current policies have ensured that.

    • Kotahi Tāne Huna 2.1
      12 October 2012 at 11:01 am

      Turn that around – instead of cowering, let’s make it that the Gnats cannot afford to show their faces in public without a massive police presence to protect them.

      • PlanetOrphan 2.1.1
        12 October 2012 at 11:13 am

        Amplify their obvious and rampant paranoia until they explode!, Snap election time.

        The Gnat’s all died of heart attacks or immigrated to Australia ….. sweet M8!.
        Poor bloody Aussies ……

        The citizens’ police force, we’ll just write our own Bloody Laws, if the Gnats can doit, so can we M8!

  3. vto 3
    12 October 2012 at 11:11 am

    .

    Time for a General Strike perhaps ………………………..

    • Pete 3.1
      12 October 2012 at 11:22 am

      Industrial action is illegal unless it’s in support of the negotiation of a collective agreement or over a safety concern. No union will risk an unlawful act like that. You can only protest in your own time.

      • PlanetOrphan 3.1.1
        12 October 2012 at 11:30 am

        “Industrial action is illegal unless it’s in support of the negotiation of a collective agreement”

        How bout supporting those kids on $10/hr bud ?
        (No doubt some ‘ll love the Idea but you can’t live on your own on $400 a week M8!)

      • freedom 3.1.2
        12 October 2012 at 11:45 am

        An unjust law is not a law of the people and so it is the people who must take back the law

      • Colonial Viper 3.1.3
        12 October 2012 at 11:56 am

        No union will risk an unlawful act like that. You can only protest in your own time.

        Stupid law enacted by the neoliberals to strengthen capital and weaken labour.

      • Draco T Bastard 3.1.4
        12 October 2012 at 5:15 pm

        Rules are made to be broken especially when the rule is unjust.

  4. lprent 4
    12 October 2012 at 1:58 pm

    Hopefully we got karol in to the meeting to give a report.

    Was somewhat difficult as I have left part of my brain behind somewhere (ie my cellphone has gone AWOL). Charles Stross in accelerando (Download) is probably going to be proved right over the next few years based on what I start feeling like when my phone or pad disappears or the power or network links go off.

    When you lose your hardware and links…..

    In Edinburgh, five years later, Manfred is mugged and his memories (stored in cyberware) are stolen, forcing him to rediscover who he is and what he’s doing in Edinburgh.

    • Jim Nald 4.1
      12 October 2012 at 2:06 pm

      I don’t disagree.

      At a public presentation just after the Chair apologised for taking a wee while to find my bio to introduce me, I said he can take his time as, every morning, I need to wait for my laptop to boot up to the sign-in page before I would be able to remember my name.

    • karol 4.2
      12 October 2012 at 5:31 pm

      Yes, I have notes, and fuzzy pics, and will put together a report – hopefully during the weekend (I’m working the next 3 days).  I see Voxy already has a couple of reports, including Peters’ Speech.  He was in the second panel with Norman and Parker. The first panel with industry and business people was actually more interesting to me.
       
      This article is useful on the outcomes of the summit.

  5. Te Reo Putake 5
    12 October 2012 at 2:23 pm

    No wonder the righties are frothing over this summit, the next Government seems to have been formed during the course of the day! The EPMU’s press release is great news:
     

    Jobs Crisis Summit the start of a new consensus
     
    The EPMU’s Jobs Crisis Summit held today in Auckland has called for concrete action to tackle the jobs crisis and support high value manufacturing in New Zealand.
     
    The summit brought together manufacturing and exporting businesses, unions, economists and political parties to discuss how to tackle the jobs crisis and build a future for manufacturing in New Zealand.
     
    Outcomes of the summit include:
     

    Labour, the Greens and New Zealand First announced a parliamentary inquiry into the crisis in manufacturing.

    The Council of Trade Unions and the members of the NZ Manufacturers and Exporters Association will seek an urgent meeting with the Government to propose steps that can be taken right now to deal with the exchange rate issue as well as other measures to help stem the flow of job losses.

    The EPMU will bring together a broad network of individuals and organisations to lobby for change on structural issues holding back manufacturing such as the high exchange rate, government procurement policies and the need for a more active role for the Government in the economy.

     
    EPMU national secretary Bill Newson says:
     
    “The EPMU called this summit because we have seen a deepening jobs crisis in this country, with 40,000 manufacturing jobs lost in the last four years and an escalating trend of mass redundancies.
     
    “We wanted to bring together people involved in the sector to talk about how we can address the crisis and then to start to build support for a new approach that supports businesses, communities and working New Zealanders.
     
    “This summit showed that there is an emerging consensus that the jobs crisis is real and the Government needs to take a more active role to support manufacturing.
     
    “We welcome the parliamentary inquiry into manufacturing from Labour, the Greens and New Zealand First. The industry speakers at our summit identified that the current crisis needs a political solution and this is exactly the kind of initiative we were hoping for.
     
    “Our union will now start work on building a network of businesses, unions, economists and commentators who are passionate about high value manufacturing and want to work together to provide a future for the sector.
     
    “We are also supporting the excellent initiative from the Council of Trade Unions and the NZ Manufacturers and Exporters Association to approach the Government with some practical steps that it can take right now to support manufacturers and stem the flow of job losses.”

  6. Rosie 6
    12 October 2012 at 3:42 pm

    Lol. Its Rosie the Riveter. Rosie will save the day!

    Seriously though – this is good news and I won’t double up on my comment over on Karol’s report.

  7. ropata 7
    12 October 2012 at 7:24 pm

    The title of this post reminded me of Ronny Jordan’s acid jazz track “Season for Change”
    But this one takes it to the next level: homebrewcrew: Listen To Us

    lyric sample ”Cos this ain’t no f***ing joke / we f***ing broke, far from cutting coke / all we got is luck and hope / dreams going up in smoke.”

    • Rosie 7.1
      12 October 2012 at 8:58 pm

      Yep, its a great track Ropata. Its powerful. Just wish more people had listened. From memory it was released just prior to the ’11 election.

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