Workers Rights Campaign

Holes in official accounts of Rena’s seaworthiness

2011-10-15T10:55:00.002+13:00

Ultimate responsibility for Rena disaster lies with the Government

Holes in official accounts of Rena’s seaworthiness

The Maritime Unionsays that the responsibility for the Rena disaster lies with Government andauthorities as much as with individual crew members.

Maritime Union ofNew Zealand General Secretary Joe Fleetwood says the arrest today of the masterof the Rena on serious charges should not deflect attention away from thegreater responsibility for the disaster.

He says New ZealandGovernment and authorities have created a situation where substandard flag ofconvenience shipping has been encouraged and enabled.

“1990s legislationfrom the then National Government created the so-called ‘open coast’ policy andthis has meant that unacceptable practices have become the norm in New Zealandwaters – it’s a case of out of sight and out of mind.”

Mr Fleetwood says aMaritime New Zealand “inspection” of the Rena in Bluff on 28 September 2011apparently consisted of the inspector asking the Master whether previousproblems had been fixed.

“This is the sameMaster that the authorities are now trying to pin the blame on a couple ofweeks later after the disaster.”

“But at the time ofthe inspection they obviously were prepared to take the Master at his word thateverything was hunky dory on his ship, despite the fact it had been hauled upin China and Australia for multiple problems.”

Mr Fleetwood says ifthis is the standard approach of Maritime New Zealand to dealing with obviouslyproblematic vessels, the only surprise in the grounding of the Rena is that ithadn’t happened earlier.

He says the Union isvery concerned about the welfare of crew members and wanted access to them toprovide independent support.

“Can you imagine thestress of these seafarers, many with dependent families, who have spent nearlya week onboard a stricken vessel in mortal fear of their lives, and some onlybeing taken off by helicopter after a Mayday call when the ship appeared to bein imminent catastrophe.”

He says it is nowbecoming a regular theme that systemic policy and regulation failures areresulting in serious harm to workers, the community and the environment.

“It is about timethat the elected leaders started copping it when things go wrong rather thanputting a smother over it and trying to shift the blame.”

He says the Unionwas repeating its call for all Maritime New Zealand reports on the Rena to bemade public as soon as possible.

“If the authoritieshave managed to arrest the captain in such a fast manner, they can start tomake public their own processes for full transparency and accountability to theNew Zealand public.”

Mr Fleetwood saysthe Union has been arguing for stronger regulation of shipping for years in NewZealand waters, but Government’s have not wanted to hear the message.

He says the Unionhas had longstanding concerns that Maritime New Zealand regulations andinspections of flag of convenience vessels were superficial, limited and notstrict enough.

The Union hascompiled a short list of some of the flag of convenience shipping issues thatit has been involved in over the last few years (see end of media release).

Mr Fleetwood sayscomment by Transport Minister Steven Joyce that the Maritime Union’s views were“political” were accurate.

“Mr Joyce is right.The issue is political. It is political because the John Key led National Governmenthave been happy to have flag of convenience ships running on the New Zealandcoast as a result of their political decisions.”

“In this case theirpolitical decision to promote and allow flag of convenience shipping on the NewZealand coast has had real life consequences, which have proved far beyond thepolitical ability and the practical ability of the Government to deal with.”

“If we allowedtrucks on New Zealand roads that were licensed in Liberia or some othersemi-functioning failed state, and driven by unregulated overseas drivers,there would be an outcry. Yet that is what we allow on the New Zealand coastand now we are paying the price.”

Mr Fleetwood says inaddition to its campaigning against Flag of Convenience shipping it had lobbiedthe Government last year with a plan to provide a fast response vessel foroffshore oil spills.

The Union approachedthe Minister of Energy and Resources, Hon Gerry Brownlee, as well as theMinister of Transport Hon Steven Joyce and Minister of Environment Hon NickSmith, in July 2010 to support the introduction of a ready response vessel forthe maritime sector to cope with oil spills and similar events.

This ready responsevessel would have been aimed at the offshore oil and gas industry but couldeasily have been used to quickly respond to oil leaks in the current Renadisaster.

The Union was toldto send their information into a Ministry of Economic Development review, whichit did.

Colombian unionists murdered since Labor Action Plan took effect'

2011-09-29T07:17:00.000+13:00

Fifteen union leaders have been murdered since the Labor Action Plan between the United States and Colombia went into effect in April 2011, said the largest U.S-based trade union federation in a letter to President Barack Obama.

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The president of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) urged Obama to not send the Colombia-U.S. free trade agreement to Congress for approval until the Colombian government addresses human rights violations against unionists in their country.
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The Labor Action Plan is a requisite for the approval of the FTA, which forces the Colombian government to address violence against unionists. The plan has been a source of controversy as critics argue that it does not require results and actual improvement.
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"Despite the Labor Action Plan that Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos agreed to in April, violent suppression of workers, as well as land rights, indigenous, and Afro-Colombian activists continues unabated," said AFL-CIO President Richard L. Trumka in the letter to Obama.
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Justice for Colombia, letter to President Santos

"Twenty-two union leaders have been killed so far this year in Colombia, including 15 since the Labor Action Plan went into effect. While the new government may have good intentions, unfortunately, on the ground, Colombian working families are neither safer nor more able to exercise basic rights. Colombia continues to be the most dangerous place in the world to be a union member," Trumka explained.
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In addition to the 22 union leaders murdered, all of which Trumka argues have gone unsolved, the AFL-CIO also pointed out that six Catholic priests have been murdered in Colombia in 2011.
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The union president asserted that passing the FTA will "undercut our leverage to encourage Colombia to follow up its promises and intentions with effective actions."
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Both President Santos and President Obama have expressed confidence that the U.S.-Colombia FTA will pass by the end of 2011.

Travis Mannon. Colombia Reports. September 27, 2011

Longshore Workers Dump Scab Grain to Protect Jobs

2011-09-10T09:07:00.000+12:00

ILWU President Bob McEllrath was detained by police as workers
massed on railroad tracks to stop a shipment of grain to a non-ILWU terminal.

The confrontation between West Coast longshore workers and an anti-union exporter exploded as pickets massed on railroad tracks by the hundreds yesterday (Sept 7th) to block grain shipments.

Police used clubs and pepper spray on protesters in Longview, Washington, as they made 19 arrests.

Early this morning a terminal there was invaded and hoppers holding about 10,000 tons of grain were opened onto railroad tracks.

Ports in Washington shut down completely Thursday as hundreds of longshore workers rushed to Longview, in the state’s southwestern corner.

Bill Proctor, a Longshore Union (ILWU) retiree, was with fellow retirees and active workers on an early morning picket line at a Seattle grain terminal. He said, “If that facility is allowed to go non-ILWU, other facilities will be tempted to follow suit. And the grain terminals on the coast are all going into contract bargaining next month.”

A foreman came out to politely assure the picketers that no one would do their work.

EGT Development, a consortium of three companies, wants to operate its new $200 million grain terminal in Longview using non-ILWU labor, despite a contract with the port requiring it to do so. When the ILWU protested, the company signed up with an Operating Engineers local.

Every other major grain terminal on the West Coast is operated by ILWU labor, and the union asserts that EGT’s goal is to go non-union altogether, ending generations of good jobs.

Read the full story

Story: Evan Rohar and Jane Slaughter
Photo: Dawn DesBrisay

Chilean Copper Workers Propose Mining Plebiscite

2011-07-15T09:58:00.000+12:00

The Confederation of Chilean Copper Workers proposed a national plebiscite on mining policy, aimed at promoting the re-nationalization of that industry.

According to the organization, which represents about 30,000 workers at the state-owned National Copper Corporation Codelco, with the profits obtained in just one year (2006), the transnational corporations operating in Chile recovered the investments made in 31 years.

Those estimates, Codelco workers say, corroborate that the copper industry is being shamefully sold out to foreign companies.

Codelco posted net income
of $4.97 billion in 2008

"The spirit of nationalization advocated by President Salvador Allende on July 11, 1971, was betrayed by decree-law 600 of the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship, which opened the doors to transnationals," said Lautaro Carmona, general secretary of the Communist Party.

Copper multinationals in Chile "will do anything to preserve their privileges and the profits they are obtaining from the high price of copper," he stated.

Those profits represent nearly 75 percent of the national budget, four times that of the Education Ministry, and 7.3 times that of the Health Ministry, he said.

For Chilean mining workers, it is imperative to recover national sovereignty over the copper industry, because at the current pace of mining, reserves will not last for more than 50 years.

Chilean Copper Workers Strike to Protest Privatization

2011-07-12T14:13:00.000+12:00

Nearly 17,000 workers at Codelco, Chile´s National Copper Corporation, went on strike on Monday to protest the eventual privatization of the mining company.

The strikers planned a national rally in Plaza de la Ciudadania outside the presidential palace, where copper miners, the teachers' union and student federations will demand the re-nationalization of the copper mining industry.

The leader of the Chilean Federation of Copper Workers, Raimundo Espinoza, accused Codelco's management of preparing to privatize the company.

Monday’s strike coincided with the 40th anniversary of the nationalization of the copper industry, decreed by the Salvador Allende government (1970-1973), and a date considered by the people as Day of National Dignity.

However, the privatization later promoted by the military regime of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990) and strengthened during the Concertation coalition government and now by the current right-wing administration, led to the fact that, at present, 70 percent of Chile´s copper is produced by large private mining companies.

Reforms risk harming another generation of children

2011-07-12T14:04:00.002+12:00

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Child Poverty Action Group is endorsing the open letter that Professor Innes Asher has sent to members of the Ministerial Group on Welfare Reform, and which was tabled in parliament this afternoon.

It’s time to support families, not punish them

Social policy spokesperson Dr Mike O’Brien says the Welfare Working Group’s proposals have insufficient focus on reducing the poverty experienced by one in five New Zealand children.

“The recommendations argue that parents should be encouraged and supported back into the workforce, and we support this if and when working is appropriate. The key must be that there is flexibility within the system to account for the needs of young children and different circumstances of sole parents, including situations where they are escaping domestic violence.

“Sadly, the proposals highlighted by Professor Asher show the Welfare Working Group has something much more rigid and punitive in mind. This includes sanctions for non-compliance and slashing the threshold for earnings from part-time work, which risk placing further strain on families already struggling with inadequate incomes. As happened in the 1990s, we now risk leaving another group of children even further behind, said O’Brien.

“CPAG urges the Ministerial Group to think carefully before adopting measures that will clearly adversely impact on young children. It’s time to support families, not punish them.”

Read Professor Asher’s letter

Visit the Welfare Justice - Alternative Welfare Working Group

Visit Child Poverty Action Group

What the (US) Union Fight is Really About

2011-04-13T11:23:00.000+12:00

An interesting article from Mother Jones delves a little deeper into the agenda behind Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walkers attack on the states state's public-sector unions.

The article argues that this was not ‘just one more skirmish in a longstanding ideological battle’, simply an attack on public-sector workers' pay, benefits and collective bargaining rights, but one leg - of a three leg strategy - where the ‘goal is not so much to advance one party's agenda, but to actively undermine the infrastructure that allows the opposing party to exist at all”.

This three leg strategy —union bashing, minority redistricting (a tactic, dubbed "Project Ratfuck”) and tort reform – has the cumulative effect, the article argues, of “defunding the Left”. Just what is left about the Demarcates is moot that said however these who really are in the sights are ordinary working people.

Well worth reading click here

Also keep an eye on Labor Notes 'Wisconsin Special Report'

Open, Democratic, Class-Oriented, Internationalist

2011-04-11T12:18:00.000+12:00

The 16th World Trade Union Congress Concludes

The 16th World Trade Union Congress concluded Sunday (April 10th) with the election of the President and the Presidential Council. Brother Muhammad Shaaban Azzouz was re-elected in the position of the President for the next 5 years. Moreover an electoral procedure took place for the voting of the Presidential Council were 598 representatives and 213 observers (advisory vote) voted for the new Presidential Council.

During the course congress large number of trade union leaders criticized neo-liberal globalization.

Speakers held the neo-liberalism imposed by centres of power responsible for the deterioration of the living conditions of workers and their families, the Prensa Latina news agency reported.

The representatives of the Gabonese Workers’ Confederation said that the austerity measures implemented in countries of the European Union –like Greece and Portugal- to reduce fiscal deficit and public debts will not solve the economic crisis and will only favour the concentration of wealth.

The reformism of several trade union leaders and even treasons have prevented the creation of a common front in defense of classist interests, warned the representatives of the Brazilian Workers’ Confederation.

Women delegates to the forum advocated the creation of a Women’s Committee as soon as possible.

Cuban Osiris Oviedo, representative of the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) at the International Labour Organization (ILO) pointed out that the Federation has assumed the defense of women’s rights as a moral duty.

Friday’s evening session was devoted to debates on changes in the statutes of the WFTU, founded in October, 1945, in Paris.

Messages sent by the ILO and the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon were read on Thursday during the plenary session, sending greetings to participants and wishing them success in their meeting.

George Mavrikos, general secretary of the WFTU, presented a report on the performance of the 2006-2010 plan of action, which includes considerations on the Pact of Athens, a document with the guidelines, suggestions and resolutions to be adopted to defend the right of workers to organize.

Salvador Valdes, general secretary of the Confederation of Cuban Workers and vice-president of the WFTU, urged trade unionists to unite, as the only way to achieve better working and living conditions.

Visit the Congress Press room here

View and/or download Congress documents here

Source acn, WFTU

Now's the time to play your part

2011-03-23T15:20:00.001+13:00

The Brits Organise

In just a few days’ time tens and possibly hundreds of thousands of people will descend on London for the TUC March for the Alternative.

Over 700 coaches and a fleet of charter trains will bring people to London from across Britain, and there appears to be little doubt that this will be the largest demonstration organised by the trade union movement in a generation.

The size of Saturday’s march and rally will reflect the scale of the damage inflicted on communities and individuals by the government’s programme of vicious cuts and so-called “reforms.”

Already some 226,000 council workers have lost their jobs or have been given notice of potential redundancy - this before the real impact of the government’s decision to slash nearly 30 per cent from local authority budgets is felt.

The False Economy website has estimated that more than 50,000 jobs will go in the NHS, despite government claims that health spending is protected.

Each of these job losses means poorer services for the public and increased pressures on the staff who remain. Little wonder that a recent survey found that three-quarters of public-sector workers felt morale in their workplace was average or poor.

The government’s cuts and top-down reforms have left staff demoralised, insecure and under more pressure than ever.

Beneath the statistics, cuts in public services and benefits are exacting a dreadful individual cost.

False Economy features dozens of testimonies setting out the human cost of the government’s reckless approach to deficit reduction.

One such example is “WS” from the West Midlands.

Her severely disabled daughter attends a residential school and cuts mean that she will lose her mobility allowance, a much needed lifeline which allows her a degree of independence and to learn essential social skills.

Another example is the Grange Day Centre in Shropshire, which provides support for physically disabled adults.

The only centre of its kind in the county, the Grange will close at the end of the year, despite a vigorous campaign by users and the local community.

These stories are by no means unique, which is why Saturday’s event is so important.

Read the rest here

Some of the links

WFTU - 16th World Trade Union Congress

2011-03-18T13:31:00.003+13:00

Download registration information and Reports

Report of action - 2005- 2010

action speaks five years of struggle

ATHENS PACT - Directions – Proposals – Resolutions

General principles of WFTU for the global environmental problems

Official Invitation & Nomination Form

WFTU on the web

Rise up!
Against capitalist barbarism,
For social justice
For a world without exploitation

White-collar Sweatshops.

2011-01-13T15:58:00.000+13:00

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Many of the freelancers who create your favorite TV shows have been toiling in white-collar sweatshops.

Organized labor's latest victories are coming in a field where no one expected unions to make gains: freelance writers and producers in nonfiction television. The Writers Guild of America, East, has won two notoriously difficult National Labor Relations Board elections in favor of creating unions at ITV Studios and Atlas Media, companies that contract workers for popular TV shows such as "Dr. G: Medical Examiner" and "The First 48."

With another election pending, for workers who help create "Cash Cab" and PBS's "History Detectives," it appears the Guild is having success doing the impossible.

And that's a big lesson, because freelancers are a large, and growing, part of the workforce. “More than 25 percent of all working Americans are, whether they want to be or not, temporary laborers, and that number will surely rise in the coming years,” wrote Richard Greenwald for In These Times. That means that they survive from job to job, contract to contract, often with no idea where their next paycheck is coming from—and certainly no pension fund, 401K or benefits.

“The main thing we can learn from this campaign is that it can be done, freelance employees can organize, freelance employees can win benefits,” says Justin Molito, director of organizing at the Writers Guild.

More . . .

Also see

> Lessons and images from the Hobbit dispute

Gulf War - Peace Vigil

2011-01-11T16:04:00.000+13:00

20th anniversary of Gulf War Commencement

Music, readings, prayer

Join a ‘die-in’

Simultaneous vigils are being held in Washington DC, London, Dublin, Bagdad, Sydney and other places

Speakers include

Kate Dewes, Rob Green, Martin and Lois Griffiths,
Jim Consedine, Anna-Claire Hunter

Oppose NZ’s involvement in Afghanistan

Come and bring a friend!

Relentless pursuit of well-being” should be welfare goal

2010-12-09T12:01:00.000+13:00

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Alternative Welfare Working Group

FINAL REPORT RELEASED TODAY

"Poverty, rather than dependency, should be
the focus of welfare reform,"

New Zealand needs to invest more resources in the next generation by addressing income, housing, health and education needs in the present, says Welfare Justice - the Alternative Welfare Working Group. The group releases its final report, Welfare Justice for All today on Thursday 9 December.

“Welfare reform should be based on the relentless pursuit of well-being,” says Welfare Justice Chair Mike O’Brien.

The government needs to focus on addressing poverty and inequality, especially among the inherently voiceless in this debate - the children of beneficiaries, says the Report. The group challenges the government's preoccupation with paid work, saying the work of caring for children and others also needs to be recognised.

"Poverty, rather than dependency, should be the focus of welfare reform," says Dr O'Brien. The increasingly punitive culture of Work and Income was also a focus of comments through meetings and submissions.

The authors of the 164-page report: Mike O’Brien, Sue Bradford, Paul Dalziel, Māmari Stephens, Muru Walters and Wendi Wicks - were asked by Catholic social justice agency Caritas, the Social Justice Commission of the Anglican Church and the Beneficiary Advocacy Federation of New Zealand to write an Alternative Report on Welfare Reform. The Commissioning Groups were concerned that participation by the community sector in the Welfare Working Group process not become justification for conclusions in the final report which have no endorsement from most of the community sector.

The report, which is being released on the eve of Human Rights Day, follows six months voluntary work by the six appointed members and a team of supporters from the church, community and academic sectors, accomplished on less than 3 per cent of the government-appointed Welfare Working Group’s original budget of $1.1 million, including public meetings, submissions and research. Their reflections and recommendations are a significant contribution from the Church, community and academic sectors to the welfare debate Social Development Minister Paula Bennett called for at the Welfare Working Group Forum in June.

Welfare Justice Chair Mike O’Brien and members Sue Bradford, Māmari Stephens and Wendi Wicks will be available to speak to the media at the Catholic Cathedral launch, or by arrangement.

Download report - PDF

Download report - Word

Visit the Welfare Justice - the Alternative Welfare Working Group webpage

Ark Tribe victory

2010-12-01T10:35:00.001+13:00

The workers united will never be defeated

Thousands of cheering workers greeted Ark Tribe as he left the Adelaide Magistrates Court last Wednesday. Magistrate David Whittle had just announced his verdict – “not guilty” of the charges brought by the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC). The scaffolder had endured 18 months of uncertainty and 11 court appearances. Six months jail had hung over his head as he became a target of the much-loathed building industry spy outfit.

Every step of the way to this victory, Ark had the support of his union (the CFMEU), the broader trade union movement and the community. The law in countries like Australia pretends that it operates in splendid isolation but there is no doubt that the judgement was achieved by the magnificent campaign waged to ensure that Ark was not sent to jail for sticking up for his rights in the workplace.

The original charges were laid when Ark refused to attend an interrogation to be conducted by the ABCC regarding a workplace meeting at a construction site at Flinders University in 2008. At the meeting, the workers had drawn up a long list of hazards that they wanted fixed for their own safety. A building worker dies nearly every week on Australian construction sites but the Howard era ABCC has not targeted shonky contractors or unsafe working practices: it has gone gunning for union members. Ark Tribe was going to be made an example for others – organise on the job and you will be hounded and punished.

Every one of Ark’s court appearances drew large and vocal demonstrations. Protests were held in other Australian capitals and regional centres.

Every one of Ark’s court appearances drew large and vocal demonstrations. Protests were held in other Australian capitals and regional centres. Supporters even gathered in London to voice their support. Messages of solidarity were sent to the CFMEU from unions all over the world.

In the end, the magistrate found that the Deputy ABCC Commissioner had not conducted the investigation according to the relevant legislation and had not received lawful delegation from the Commissioner. This wasn’t a matter of “getting off on a technicality”, however.

The case showed that the ABCC was prepared to go beyond what the magistrate called its “significant and intrusive powers” under section 52 of the Act to get Ark Tribe and others like him.

The ABCC is reported to have spent around $1 million of taxpayers’ money on the exercise. It has now squandered $100 million on its war on building unions – money that should have been spent on urgent social needs including workplace safety.

The verdict is a victory but the campaign must go on. The legislation is still on the books and the ABCC will no doubt learn from this experience for next time. Its reputation has taken a hit but even more pressure must be built to make sure it is abolished and not restored in some other guise. Newly appointed ABCC Commissioner Leigh Johns expressed “sympathy” for construction workers for being singled out for attention by a body like the ABCC. “We don’t want his sympathy - we want equal rights,” CFMEU Construction and General national secretary Dave Noonan said.
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The Gillard government tries to hide its shame over the issue by claiming a new body will be established within Fair Work Australia. It will still be a “tough cop on the beat” but will somehow shake off the appalling reputation of its forerunner. It will, in fact, be a rebadged ABCC. The Greens are set to challenge Gillard over the matter in parliament and have consistently called for the abolition of the ABCC. As things stand, the Liberals would vote with the government to thwart any such effort. The movement in the community must be strengthened to show that there will be a political cost to the major parties if the anti-union outfit is not given a fitting burial.

“Today’s verdict will see Australian unions redouble their efforts to have these unfair and unjust laws abolished. These laws criminalise legitimate industrial activity and deny building workers the right to silence,” ACTU secretary Ged Kearney said last week. It will be a challenge to do that without the focus of a case like Ark Tribe’s but it must be done so that others are not put through the hell suffered by that courageous construction worker.

Source

Tour of Shame!

2010-09-16T08:10:00.007+12:00

name and shame unscrupulous employers

Meet at Subway

(corner of Barbadoes St and Cashel St)
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12 noon
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SUNDAY

This Sunday (19th September) there will be lightning pickets across Christchurch to name and shame the unscrupulous employers that have put profit before the welfare of their staff during the earthquakes aftermath.

These companies (First Security, Subway and Reading Cinema The Palms and others) are refusing to pay workers for lost hours, as well as forcing staff to work regardless of safe conditions or personal needs.

Meet us at Subway (corner of Colombo and Hereford St) at 12 noon where we'll spend 20 minutes making it loud and clear what kind of company operates in our community... we will then car pool to the next site.

More info visit TOUR OF SHAME! on facebook

Name and Shame

2010-09-10T15:47:00.000+12:00

First Security bail on workers

First Security has been accused of putting profit before workers welfare in the aftermath of the Christchurch earthquake.

Unite National Security Coordinator Barry Sutherland has been refused the right to speak to members of First Security Guard Services Limited in the Christchurch based National Communications Centre. “Feedback from the staff has indicated that they have been forced to work, some having no option but to bring their children to the workplace. Staff did not have access to the EAP services for the First 5 days after the 7.1 Earthquake”, said Barry Sutherland.

“The General Manager arrived in Christchurch 5 days after the devastating ordeal occurred, gave his John Key wave and left. Staff from First Security are feeling undervalued and used by their bosses,” stated Mr Sutherland.

Since Monday the companies Unite deal with have nearly always responded admirably, offering adequate compensation for loss of earnings, EAP services, and time off to focus on their homes and families affected by the quake.

Unite has been inundated by calls from concerned workers, most of which have been quick to fix. However, it is becoming clearer by the day that there are those that value their businesses much more then they care for the welfare of their staff.

At the beginning of the week Unite Union Organiser Matt Jones announced that Unite would “NAME & SHAME” any employer that abuses workers rights during this natural disaster.

“First Security have the honour of being the first company to have been found to put profit before welfare” stated Mr Jones.

"Policy-induced High Unemployment" – more delights from the neoliberal economy

The Welfare Justice alternative welfare working group have released an alternative issues paper written by one of its members, Professor Paul Dalziel.

The paper is a personal reflection to inform public debate about possible welfare changes being proposed by the government appointed Welfare Working Group.

While the government Welfare Working Group Issues Paper questions the growth in sickness related benefits, arguing there has been no deteroriation in the health of New Zealanders, Professor Dalziel sees this trend in the context of wider economic restructuring, in particular the abandonment of the premise that public policy could maintain low rates of unemployment.

"For people who have little or no economic reserves, an extended period of unemployment and low income causes stress, resulting in persistent poor health that limits their capacity to work. High unemployment in the 1980s and 1990s triggered this negative spiral for many households, increasing the number of people on Sickness Benefits," Professor Dalziel's issue paper explains. He notes that the Welfare Working Group's paper itself highlights the damaging impact of long-term unemployment.

The full paper is available on the Alternative Welfare Working Group website or downloaded directly here

Union flooded with calls from worried workers in Christchurch

2010-09-06T12:43:00.000+12:00

What about the Workers ?

Unite Union's Christchurch office has been flooded with phone calls and text messages from worried workers in post-earthquake Christchurch.

"Many workers at Christchurch's restaurants, cinemas, hotels and security firms are worried that they will not be paid for the working days lost because of the earthquake. We are very worried that some employers will seek to withhold payment for work that employees were rostered to do over the weekend," said Unite's Christchurch organiser Matt Jones.

"Union members with young children have also been calling us concerned that their employer will force them to work before schools and childcare centres reopen after Wednesday." said Mr. Jones.

Staff at a local fast food outlet unanimously voted to return home once they were reminded of their rights at work on Saturday. Whilst the discussion took place the store was rocked by one of the numerous aftershocks the city has felt over the weekend. The Canterbury Medical Health Officer has advised locals to stay away from their workplaces unless they are deemed fit by structural engineers. Both the Health and Safety Act and the Civil Defence Act support this statement

"John Key will bail out property owners and big business using state cash but who will help out the thousands of low paid Christchurch workers who have lost jobs and incomes because of the quake? Key should provide instant cash relief to Christchurch's struggling working population."

"Precarious and casual workers face unemployment, bankruptcy and hard times in Christchurch. If New Zealand's large corporations and employers cut adrift the workers of Christchurch then the city will face a social disaster on top of this natural disaster," concluded Mr. Jones.

Unite is prepared to name and shame businesses that abandon or rip-off their workers in the aftermath of the earthquake. Workers' can call 0800 2 UNITE (0800 286 483) to share their story and seek workplace advice.

The Caracas Manifesto

2010-09-05T14:25:00.000+12:00

Declaration of the III Trade Union Meeting of “Our America”

Extract

"Today, as yesterday, those at the bottom of society propose Liberation, and under new conditions we confront the project of the dominant class, known today as “liberalization,” which promotes the opening of national economies to the needs of the transnational corporations."

> Download the Declaration in English (pdf)
> Visit Webpage (Spanish)

Rally to defend YOUR rights Saturday

2010-08-18T15:03:00.002+12:00

Visit the CTU's Fairness at Work webpage for details of the hard fought for rights being stripped from your workplace

Click here

Defend Workers Rights - Public Meeting

2010-08-12T12:15:00.001+12:00

Public Meeting Today

To discuss the Governments proposals to further reduce the work place rights of Kiwi workers

7.00pm
Thursday August 12th
WEA, 59 Gloucester

Speakers

Matt Jones ..
   Unite organiser; member Aotearoa Workers Solidarity Movement

Fay Birch
   Cleaner; personal grievance worker

Byron Clark ...
   Workers Party

Jared Davidson..
   Beyond Resistance

After the meeting we'll be talking about further protest organising and activities.

Download the Fire at Will Flyer

Download CTU flyer for National Action August 21st

NZ Workers 7th least protected - OECD

2010-07-20T10:25:00.001+12:00

Also see
> Ideology for Evidence <

Ark Tribe Back In Court - Today

2010-07-20T08:08:00.000+12:00

Ark Tribe will be back in court Tuesday July 20 after the matter was adjourned 16 June.
During that time the magistrate twice adjourned the case after the defence, who originally argued the case should be thrown out on the grounds the ABCC had not correctly begun the prosecution – as the proper authority did not exist.

Lawyers for the Commonwealth DPP contested the argument and the magistrate moved for an adjournment. Both sides made written submissions on the matter.

The magistrate conceded that although the proceedings were vaildly brought by the defence, he asked that the case continue as planned.

Support, Sign, Follow, View

To show your support for Ark, sign the Don't Jail Ark petition, follow us on Twitter or for more information view the Rights On Site website.

DEFEND UNION RIGHTS

2010-07-18T12:58:00.001+12:00

STOP NATIONAL'S ATTACKS ON WORKERS

Planning Meeting

6-30pm

Monday July 19th

Canterbury WEA
59 Gloucester Street

Protest Sunday

2010-07-17T15:46:00.001+12:00

Oppose National's Attacks on Workers Rights!!!

10.00am – 12 noon

Tomorrow Sunday July 18th

The Square

A call out has been made to demonstrate tomorrow, SUNDAY 18th, between 10am - 12noon at Christchurch Cathedral Square - we need to make sure that National's Anti-Worker proposals are stopped before we find ourselves locked out of our members work sites!!!

the 90 day "no rights" trial period that presently applies to new workers in small businesses is going to be applied to all businesses, and

the right of union members to see a union organiser in their workplace is going to be restricted so the organiser can only be there if the employer consents.

Unite, along with a number of local organisations, NGO's and activists will be there with megaphones and banners - make sure you pass the message on to your delegates and members! We cannot afford to sit back and watch.

click

International Day of Action

2010-07-16T14:54:00.008+12:00

ALL WORKERS UNITED ON SEPTEMBER 7th

INTERNATIONAL ACTION DAY

We demand now in order to get out of the crisis:

· To stop the expenditure on military equipments and this money to be granted to the unemployed and the poor.

· To take action now on erasing the debts of Third World Countries.

· Free and Public health, education, food and water for all.

· Public investment for the creation of jobs. Satisfaction of workers’ current needs.
Through small and big struggles, the international working class will understand that the future of humanity can be drastically improved only through the abolition of the exploitation of man by man. Because capitalism cannot be amended!!!

Let’s join forces and voices in the mobilizations on the International Action Day

More Info

Two More Trade Unionists Murdered in Venezuela

2010-07-16T12:41:00.005+12:00

National Union of Workers Demands Justice

Following the murder of two Venezuelan trade unionists this week, the National Union of Workers (UNETE) demanded that state security forces carry out efficient investigations and adopt preventative measures to protect union leaders.

On Monday night, UNETE member Alexis Díaz died after being shot twice outside of his home in Aragua state. Díaz, a father of five, was a union organizer at Plumrose, a Danish meat processing company, and a member of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV).

Local news reports identified Diaz’s attacker as Cristian Vargas, who had recently been released from jail and had charges pending against him for robbery and homicide. Díaz allegedly fired back using the handgun he carried, wounding Vargas, who was taken to the hospital and remains in police custody.

Read more

ALSO SEE

> Hugo Chávez Denounces US Funding to Venezuelan Opposition

> Buying Venezuela’s Press with U.S. Tax Dollars

Don't Get Caught in a Bad Hotel

2010-06-24T10:00:00.005+12:00

A flashmob infiltrates the Westin St. Francis hotel in San Francisco and performs an adaptation of Lady Gaga's song "Bad Romance." The event was organized to draw attention to a boycott called by the workers of the hotel who are fighting to win a fair contract and affordable healthcare. Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer activists put the song and dance together as a creative way to tell the hundreds of thousands of LGBTQ people from all over the country coming to San Francsico in June for Pride to stay out of the boycotted hotels.

To learn more about how to honor the boycott and support the workers visit:
Sleep With The Right People
Hotel Workers Rising

Don’t Jail Ark

2010-06-12T11:27:00.000+12:00

AN INJURY TO ONE IS AND INJURY TO ALL

Next week workers' rights in Australia will be on trial as Adelaide construction worker Ark Tribe faces court on June 15, charged with refusing to attend an Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) interview.

Under laws that apply only to building workers, a worker can be called into an interview and compelled to answer all questions. To not do so, could mean six months jail. This is what Ark faces now.

Ark Tribe said that, "this fight isn't about me or you, it's about us and the kids who come behind us. I never thought I'd see the day when hard working Australians would face jail for sticking up for their rights."

Don't Jail Ark - Sign the Petition

Here's you chance to see what Ark's lawyer, Stephen Dolphin, has to say about the landmark industrial case that he has been fighting. The first case of its kind that will test the laws under the Building and Improvement Act.

Most people are horrified to find out there is no right to silence in the laws that underpin the ABCC.

There is the possibility that an ordinary worker will go to jail. This is something that all working people need to be mindful of.
.

Download Constructing Fear

A documentary exposing the activity of an industrial inquisition targeting building workers across Australia. “Constructing Fear” shows how these workers are the front line in an attack on civil liberties that has implications for every Australian.

Download "Stand Tall"

Visit "Rights On Site"

Sign the Don't Jail Ark petition and share it with your friends, family and co-workers.

And if you’re reading this in Oz participate in the June 15 actions:

•   SA - Rally supporting Ark going to court. Starting at the 'Ark Tribe Embassy', Victoria Square, Adelaide at 8:15am
•   NSW - March of Solidarity at 12pm, corner of Goulburn St and Dixon Lane
•   TAS - Parliament House, 12pm
•   VIC - Tent Embassy, ABCC Headquarters, 533 St. Kilda Rd, Melbourne
•   ACT, QLD, WA - Sending construction workers to Adelaide to support Ark.

Our Water Our Vote

2010-06-08T16:36:00.002+12:00

Action this week

The loss of our elected regional council, the loss of water conservation orders and our right to argue for or against them, is a loss for democracy

John KEY PROTEST RALLY

Wednesday June 9th

6.30 pm

Isaac Theatre Royal

Worcester St

During his next visit to Christchurch on 9 June we need to show John Key and the nation that we are not happy with the dismissal of our elected councillors and his plans for our water. He needs to know that we do not want our rivers, lakes wetlands and aquifers destroyed. He also needs to know that we do not want agribusiness to be given vast quantities of pure water free of charge while we are forced to pay high water rates for a restricted supply of chlorinated and contaminated water.

For those who can afford it Tickets cost $7 and are available from Ticketek and the Press offices. There will be a part open microphone for questions.

More Information click here

REFLECTIONS ON WATER

Sunday, June 13th

3:00pm - 6:00pm

Cathedral Square

Speakers Graham Wardrop and Liz Braggins; Brian Turner; Lydia Bradey; Brian Deans; Robin Judkins; Morgan Waru; Peter Beck; Ariana Tikao.

In case of rain, the Cathedral will be open to us - so try be one of the first 800!

More Information click here

KEEP AN EYE ON Our Water, Our Vote (ourwaterourvote.org.nz)

Protests Against Murderous Assault On Aid Flotilla

2010-06-04T11:52:00.002+12:00

For More information visit: Justice for Palestine - Christchurch

Hospital Workers in Nationwide Struggle

2010-06-02T12:10:00.002+12:00

300 workers at hospitals throughout the North and South Islands are taking strike action today. We are cleaners and orderlies who play a vital role in keeping our hospitals functioning safely and efficiently.

Our employer is refusing to give us a fair deal!

We need your support!
Cleaners and orderlies who work for OCS at Auckland, Greenlane, Rotorua, Hawkes Bay, Wairarapa, Burwood and Christchurch Hospitals are taking action to achieve a fair pay deal from OCS.

We are members of the Service and Food Workers Union, Nga Ringa Tota (SFWU). Our employer (OCS) has refused to make an offer after nearly a year of fruitless negotiations. OCS is a private contractor to the District Health Boards (DHBs).

All we are asking for is what other employers have already agreed to pay for the same or similar work in public hospitals all round New Zealand.

Other hospital workers doing the same jobs as us but employed directly by the DHBs or other contractors have already been offered a pay rise of 2% from 1 April 2010, but OCS is holding out.

• Support the hospital cleaners
• Contact OCS CEO Kevin Mulcahy and tell them to pay up
• email kevin.mulcahy@ocs.co.nz or phone (09) 377 5317

Download Flyer

Text from SFWU Flyer

What About the Workers?

2010-05-19T09:18:00.004+12:00

.
PUBLIC MEETING

7.00 pm

Thursday, May 27

Meeting Room

Lyttelton Recreation Centre

(25 Winchester St, Lyttelton)

SPEAKERS

Matt Jones

(Unite trade union)

Paul Piesse

(former organiser, local government union)

Fay Birch

(cleaner and personal grievance expert)

Philip Ferguson

(Canterbury University)

Over the past 25 years, workers have found ourselves working longer hours for relatively less pay, while employers have been raking in massive profits.

The minimum wage remains too low for any sort of decent existence; laws stop us from using the strike weapon to fight lay-offs and support each other in struggle; indirect taxes (like GST) go up, hitting low- to middle-income people hardest.

The gap in wealth and income in New Zealand continues to grow under both Labour- and National-led governments.

The latest budget helps this process along.

Come along to this meeting and hear about, and discuss, why GST should be scrapped, the minimum wage lifted, and restrictions on workers’ right to strike abolished.

Download Flyer

Direct Action Friday - Our Water Our Vote

2010-04-28T23:03:00.004+12:00

Direct Action Friday

Friday April 30th

5.30pm - 7.30pm

Environment Canterbury

58 Kilmore Street Christchurch

(map)

April 30th is the final day that the elected ECan councillors will be in place at the regional council. The National government - with ample assistance from Rodney Hide and Bob Parker - have rushed through legislation to strip the citizens of Canterbury of their vote, and transfer water and wealth to the few corporations and farmers that have no interest in the impact such actions will have on the environment.

This is our chance to say NO! Give us back our vote! Give us back our council! Give us back our water conservation orders - which had nothing to do with ECan at all, but were tacked onto the bill because of the obstacle they provided for irrigation interests.

Come to the steps of ECan at the end of the day on Friday. Bring placards, posters, drums, megaphones. Bring friends, family, colleagues. Bring your loudest voice.

At a little after 6pm, those who are keen may want to make the short walk down to the Copthorne Hotel, where the Nats are holding a 'victory party'. Called the "Jenny Shipley Lecture", the topic of this years event is "Canterbury Water - A Collaborative Approach", which is as insulting as it is inaccurate. Nick Smith, Bob Parker, various Canterbury National MPs, Mark Solomon from Ngai Tahu and various other irrigation and farming interests will be gathering together to celebrate the takeover and laugh maniacally. This is the perfect opportunity to let them know they have massively misjudged public opinion, and that they pay for it as soon as we have the chance to vote them out.

More information visit: Our Water Our Vote

Philippines: Locked-out Alta Mode garment workers fight against union-busting

2010-04-28T16:05:00.000+12:00

The embattled workers of Alta Mode Inc., a garments factory in the Mactan export zone and subcontractor for global brands such as Abercrombie & Fitch, are appealing for solidarity. Since February 15, a hundred workers have camped out in the main gates of the Mactan export zone, one of the biggest in the Philippines, after they were locked out. The Alta Mode Workers Union, an affiliate of the Partido ng Manggagawa [Labor Party-Philippines], is demanding that they return to work. The workers have proof that management’s claims of monetary losses are lies. The Alta Mode Workers Union accuses the company of closing the factory in order to bust the union.

Get more background
Take action

Lyttelton Street Party

2010-02-23T12:21:00.013+13:00

Unite $15 Minimum Wage Petition

Signature Collection

Lyttelton Street Party

Sunday February 28th

12 noon till 2(ish)

meet outside Freemans

11.45am

(map)

Anyone who wants to help raise the minimum wage and give half a million NZ workers a better deal, come along and join us!

Dimmer and dimmer

2010-02-23T10:16:00.002+13:00

National's minimal wage rise getting up your nose?

2010-02-09T21:48:00.020+13:00

Minimum Wage Picket

Saturday

(February 13)

10.00am – Noon

Outside Nicky Wagners Electorate Office

186 Montreal St Christchurch

(map)

The minimum wage is currently $12.50 an hour. The National Government recently reviewed this rate and decided to raise it by ... hold your breath ...25c!
The minimum wage needs to rise to at least $15 per hour, and then be fixed at two thirds of the average wage (which currently would make it just over $16 an hour).

25 cents is an insult

Join the Picket!

For more information contact

Byron at byroncclark@gmail.com Mobile: 021815145

Living Wage Picket Organising Meeting

2010-02-05T10:30:00.005+13:00

The Workers Rights Campaign is holding a meeting this Monday (the 8th) to organise a picket of an MP’s office on Saturday as part of the nation wide day of action protesting the pitiful 25 cent increase in the minimum wage and demanding a living wage now! (see Facebook group)
At this meeting we will decide what office to picket, what time, and also organise a placard painting day later in the week as well as some signature collecting for the petition that can also be used to advertise the picket.
7:30pm, Monday the 8th
WEA, 59 Gloucester St (map)

Give Some Christmas Cheer

2009-12-19T11:16:00.003+13:00

More information
> Rights On Site
> CFMEU
> Ark’s Tribe

One More Demo To Add To The Weekend Shopping List!!

2009-12-02T10:18:00.020+13:00

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FOODSTUFFS PROTEST ACTION

PLANNED PROTEST ACTION - CHRISTCHURCH

SATURDAY 5th 12.30 - 4.30pm

Union members, social justice activists and CTU Local Affiliates are invited to join Foodstuffs NDU members on Saturday 5th DECEMBER to further protest the lack of progress in bargaining. Their employment agreement has expired 9 months ago and Foodstuffs South Island has consistently failed to negotiate a pay increase with the Union despite recording a $144 million dollar net profit.
To make matters worse the company illegally suspended members in Christchurch two weeks ago and prevented them from starting work for a period after strike action had been lifted. Over $5,000 in wages are owed.
Affiliates are welcome to come aboard the bus or meet up at the planned 30 minute demos.
The Union will be providing a bus for members to hop on board at the following points.

The Bus route protests and pick up points are as follows;

12.30pm - Outside Papanui Primary school - Cranford Street
1.00pm - Pick up Hornby members outside Foodstuffs Hornby DC site
1.30pm - 30 minute Protest outside New World Halswell
2.00pm - Bus departs to Wainoni

2.30pm - 30 minute protest action outside Pak n Save Wainoni (Wainoni Rd)

3.00pm - Bus departs to Papanui
3.30pm - Pak n Save demo outside Northlands Mall
4.00pm - Bus drops off members to pick up points.

Remember this bus trip will be outside work time and family are welcome to come along for the ride. We will also invite other Unions to come along and even members of the media if they want a free bus ride and learn more about your fight against low pay .

.
More information Call 03 379 7671 or 021 618 395

Lift the Freeze

2009-11-23T09:47:00.007+13:00

Christchuch: meet at the Trade Union Centre at 12-30, march to Victoria Square

Rest on the country: check here

Movements for free public education are uniting worldwide!!

2009-11-05T14:26:00.010+13:00

Education is NOT for $A£€!

Over the years people around the world have seen tuition fees skyrocket, sending many into debt for years after they have graduated. Recently there has also been an increasing presence of corporations within universities and even schools. Public educational institutions are increasingly subjected to economic forces. They are converted to a place of business where the students, pupils, teachers and staff hardly have a voice. Students – and even pupils – are not seen as anything but the clientele, which creates an atmosphere antithetical to self-determined learning. People worldwide are affected by constant budget cuts and the increasing influence of economic interests on public education.

As a reaction to this development various groups and whole movements from all parts of the world are getting together to unite in their struggle for free and emancipatory public education systems.

On November 5th 2009 the “Warm-up Day of United Action” will kick off internationally co-ordinated protest actions, that will take place as part of the “Education is NOT for $A£€ - Global Week of Action” [Nov. 9t - 18th].

Close to 70 groups in 30 countries (e.g. Canada, Liberia, Croatia, the Philippines, Germany, Indonesia, France, Bangladesh, Italy and the U.S.A.) are currently calling for public discussions, demonstrations and occupations of public spaces during the week of action.

The news of occupations at universities across Austria spread around the world like wildfire and gave international networking among activists a real push. People in many parts of the world identify with the occupants' demands and goals. This new grassroots movement called for a national day of action in support of free public education and against the so-called “Bolonga Process“, which they deem to be part of the “Warm-up Day of United Action”.

Student unions in Canada are calling for large-scale demonstrations against tuition fees and the ongoing commercialisation of public education on the same day. Bigger protests are as well being prepared by groups in the U.S. of A., Poland and Switzerland among others. Only a few days later, on November 17th, countrywide movements in Germany, France, Italy, Austria and other countries will continue their actions in unison.

Regular online chat meetings, the use of various forums, a mailing list and homepage help to ensure a constant flow of information between the activists, wherever they are. The “basis” for the Global Week of Action was coordinated with the support of these appliances by people from around the world who see themselves to be part of the “International Student Movement”, an independent platform.

This newly formed international movement aims to encourage public debates about the functions of public education systems for societies as a whole and the link between local problems within educational institutions and global economic forces. It wants to point out the necessity of free and emancipatory public education for any democratic society.

This issue impacts not only those directly affected by it within the institutions, but society at large.

Every group formulates their own individual demands in detail, but they all stand united in their struggle for free and emancipatory public education – worldwide!

Campaign homepage

Petition

Kiwi Webpage

Public Meeting: Campaigning to increase the minimum wage

2009-10-22T12:56:00.002+13:00

In Christchurch, the Workers Rights Campaign is heavily-involved in collecting signatures for Unite trade union’s petition for a citizens-initiated referendum to increase the minimum wage. Come along and find out about the petition and the other activities of the Workers Rights Campaign.

Speaker: Byron Clark (WRC)

6PM, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 28

WEA, 59 Gloucester St

(Map)

Basque union headquarters raided

2009-10-21T11:29:00.006+13:00

CALL FOR SUPPORT
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The Spanish State has chosen once again by continuing its strategy of refusal to the Basque people and repression against the pro-Independence Left movement, through the arrests of activists.

It is necessary to overcome the repression and denial strategy of the Spanish Government and open a new political cycle based on respect for all political options and the Basque people’s right to decide.

The police operation was directed against the Basque working class and it was aimed at disabling the political initiatives that the Basque separatist left could carry out to overcome the existing political conflict.

For the working class it is essential to promote a political change in Euskal Herria (Basque Country). We of the working class need an alternative strategy to the prevailing social and economic model that makes us mere servants of capital and entrepreneurship today.

The Basque country needs a political change resulting in a democratic framework which recognizes the right of the Basque people to decide their future in terms of dialogue, democracy and political proposal. This is the scenario which LAB considers we need to build among all political, trade union and social agencies.

From this point of view, we demand the immediate release of our colleague Rafael Díez Usabiaga, former General Secretary of LAB, as well of the other detainees.

We also denounce the assault on our headquarters in Donostia-San Sebastian and insist that there be no further such attack.

We call on all to endorse the protests that are going to take place during the next few days in the Basque Country to denounce these recent acts.

We ask for the solidarity of all class trade unions worldwide and ask them to send us their messages of solidarity to the following email address: nazioartea@labsindikatua.org

LAB Internacional Statment

More Information
> Statement of Askapena

> Irish Basque Solidarity Committees

Mexican Government Seizes Power Plants, Liquidates Dissident Union

2009-10-15T16:09:00.008+13:00

Over the weekend Federal Police seized the plants of the Central Light and Power Company of Mexico, which provides electricity to Mexico City and several states in central Mexico. The government of President Felipe Calderón announced that the company would be liquidated and all its approximately 45,000 workers fired, which would mean the destruction of the Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME). Another 20,000 retirees are also now severed from their former employer and their union. The government’s action directly affects at least 250,000 workers and their families in the Federal District and states neighboring the capital.

The government wants to eliminate SME because the union has been a leading force in organizing to oppose Calderón’s economic policies, and in particular its plan to privatize the electrical industry. The government will apparently put the Central Light and Power facilities under the control of the Federal Electrical Commission whose workers are represented by a union loyal to the government. The union argues that this will be the first step to privatizing the industry, though the government denies this.

Read more at Labor Notes

Stand with the Mexican Electrical Workers Union

Money or Your Life

2009-10-07T23:45:00.006+13:00

Subject: urgent donations needed for migrant member

Importance: High

The plight of immigrant labour employed by Telecom’s contractors has again made the news.

The EPMU has issued a call for financial support to assist a Filipino whose wife has been diagnosed with lung cancer. The worker, along with 43 other immigrant workers, formerly employed by Telecom contactor Transfield, was already barely surviving on support from the Union’s welfare fund and now faces huge medical expenses to obtain the appropriate medical treatment for his wife.

Below is a copy of the Union request for financial assistance and you can read the NZ Herald article here.

clicking on the email image will take you to the original

Help the Linwood Community

2009-10-02T07:56:00.011+13:00

SAVE THEIR POSTSHOP

Public Meeting

1.00pm THIS Saturday

October 3th

Linwood Community Arts Centre
cnr Worchester and Stanmore
(map)

Wellington, Sept 23 NZPA - New Zealand Post defended the closure or reduction in services at a handful of stores as it reported a fall in full year net profit to $71.8 million.

Read the story ...

There is more information here and here (other posts)

Mexican Government Prepares to Seize Power Stations and Break Electrical Workers Union

2009-09-30T11:32:00.005+13:00

The Mexican Preventive Police are preparing to occupy the facilities of the Central Light and Power Company in Mexico City in an attempt to break the militant Mexican Electrical Workers Union, according to the union.

The union warns that the quasi-military occupation of the plants could come within a week. Police have been used in the last three years to attempt to break strikes of miners and steelworkers as well as to try to crush popular social movements. Mexican police have previously been used to occupy the facilities of telephone workers and others to break strikes.

This current threat is the latest in a series of attacks on unions by the government of Felipe Calderón. The Calderón administration has spent three years trying to destroy the Mexican Miners and Metal Workers Union

More from Labor Notes here

DAIRY WORKERS; “Face Vicious Assault on Union Rights”

2009-09-30T11:20:00.007+13:00

The IUF, the international uniting Food, Farm and Hotel Workers world-wide has launched an online solidarity page in support of the locked out members of the Daily Workers Union at Open Country Cheese;

You’ll find the IUF Campaign Page HERE

and you were able to send a message to Open Country Cheese HERE. However apparently OCC have blocked or shut down their email address and everything is bouncing.

Our other posts on this dispute can be found here and here and links to the Dairy Workers Union are on the sidebar.

CHICAGO: largest civil disobedience action in years

2009-09-29T07:58:00.005+13:00

About 200 hospitality workers and supporters were arrested in Chicago Sept. 24 as part of a civil disobedience action in the streets outside the Hyatt Hotel and corporate headquarters. Those who participated in the sit-in, blocking rush hour traffic for more than an hour, were cheered on by almost 1,000 demonstrators who jammed the sidewalks in front of and across the street from the hotel. All those arrested were bussed to a special police facility where they were given citations and released.

The largest civil disobedience action by workers here in many years came less than a year after other workers in Chicago made history last winter by occupying a window and door factory after the owner shut it down. The sit-in was organized by Unite Here Local 1, the union that represents 15,000 hotel and food service workers in Chicago and casino workers in Northwest Indiana. The action came amid escalating labor disputes with Chicago hotels and growing public backlash against Hyatt hotels for the recent firing of 100 housekeepers in Boston. Unite Here Local 1 is in contract negotiations with hotel employers, including the Hyatt. Their contract expired Aug. 31.

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick confirmed Sept. 25 that he has ordered state employees to stop doing business with Hyatt hotels until it rehires the fired workers. Hyatt fired the workers and brought in lower-paid replacements the laid-off workers had trained. Reflecting the national nature of the outrage, 92 hotel workers in San Francisco were arrested in a simultaneous civil disobedience action, also on Sept. 24. The protests capped months of anger in the ranks of hotel workers here and around the country who are criticizing their employers for driving down wages, increasing workloads, cutting health benefits and jobs.

Links to background and articles
> Hundreds to be arrested in civil disobedience action
> Boston-area Workers to March and Rally against "Jobless Recovery
> Hotel workers stage sit-in at Hyatt
> Hotel Housekeepers Protest Mass Firing In Boston
> A hard ending for housekeepers
> Is lamenting employer militancy enough?

Text Source

Download Diary Workers Newsletters

2009-09-25T11:21:00.010+12:00

Dairy Workers - One Page Flyer.pdf

Dairy Workers - Two Page Newssheet.pdf

IUF stands “shoulder-to-shoulder” with Kiwi Workers

2009-09-25T09:38:00.018+12:00

The IUF, the international uniting Food, Farm and Hotel Workers world-wide has thrown its weight behind the Dairy Workers Union (NZDWU) in its dispute with Open Country Cheese, a Waikato based dairy product manufacturer with National Party links.

IUF General Secretary Ron Oswald has stated that the international will stand ‘shoulder-to-shoulder” with the locked out workers in their “critical struggle against those who would drive down the rights and living standards”.

Open Country Cheese (OCC) owner, the Talley Group, has a reputation for union bashing and hit the headlines earlier in the decade for its role in the 2005 election during which it offered Don Brash $1 million for the National Party campaign.

The company has gone into over-drive in an attempt to bully and discredit the union and its members. Not only has it engaged in highly misleading statements to the press, such as claiming the union was seeking wage claims of 46%, but it has now begun a six-week lock out of workers.

“OCC’s proposals would have” according to James Ritchie, National Secretary of the NZDWU “ turned most workers into seasonal and temporary workers and seen them subject to major and disruptive roster changes at short notice,”.

“When workers stood up for some basic fairness at work and job security, they were met with aggression. The company set up a bogus employment agency to casualise the workforce, have assaulted a worker, tried to block workers from accessing on-site union representation and this week have bandied around false accusations of environmental sabotage.”

Assault is not the only vile action that Talley’s stand accused. Up to 50% of their frozen peas have been found to be black nightshade, poisonous berry while managing director Peter Talley, is on record as being pro-whaling, pro-genetic engineering, and anti-MMP.
Makes you wonder about the coming MMP review really.
.

Dairy Workers Union Webpage

Appeal for support

Union press releases

Pix: TV3 & thanx to the bloggers whose work we’ve pillaged

'Save our Shop'- NZ Post Protest Spreads

2009-09-21T09:42:00.010+12:00

Saturday saw a well attended Day of Action at the Eastgate Postshop protesting the intention of NZ Post to close the Linwood PostShop on Stanmore Road. The thirty plus participants received support from both pedestrians, most of whom stopped to sign the petition, and passing motorists whose blaring horns added to the festive occasion.

Many of those present entered the Postshop to purchase small items – an action that draw the attention of the Mall management when photographs were taken – resulting in an influx of security personnel sent to enforce a decree that photography, inside the Eastgate, is banned.

Today protest action spreads to the Red Wood PostShop, also slated for closure

Your support is needed:

Redwood PostShop

TODAY

Monday September 21st

12.30pm -1.30pm

Main Rd North, Opposite Redwood Library.
(map)

Look for 'Save our Shop' banner.

Join the Facebook Group here

Use ‘em then abuse ‘em

2009-09-20T17:19:00.010+12:00

As 300 of Telecom’s lines engineers find themselves redundant the company’s new Auckland and Northland contractor, Visionstream, has started advertising paid permanent positions for lines engineers through Work and Income.

The takeover comes as hundreds of EPMU members refuse to lose income and forfeit their employment rights by signing up to the Visionstream contract.

The workers are, according to the NZ Herald, “rightly concerned that the new offer put before them is unfair in that it doesn't guarantee any base level of work, requires them to be available 7am-7pm making them dependent - rather than independent - contractors, and reduces their income to around $25,000.”

Around 400 migrant workers stand to lose jobs as a result of telecoms union-busting policies. Half of the affected workers are Filipinos and the rest are British, South Africans and Fiji Indians. Many are on work permits and could not become self employed dependent contractors, even if they wished to.

Migrante Aotearoa National Coordinator Dennis Maga says in the latest issue of Kapatiran (the PSNA Newsletter) that "It's unfortunate that while Government and some employers are trying to ease impacts of the recession, Telecom chose a business model that doesn't offer a fair deal for Kiwis and migrants”.

Unique among transnational’s operating in New Zealand Telecom has won the Roger Award twice, firstly in 2004 and again in 2007 , and been a finalist every year since the Awards’ inception. A sterling record only surpassed by Tranz Rail which has won on three occasions an achievement recognised by its installation as the first occupant in the Hall of Shame.

Both Telecom and Tranz Rail share the ignominy of having been established at taxpayers’ expense before being handed to privateers who reaped massive profits by exploiting their respective monopoly positions – a practise that has earned Telecom “Special Award for Monopoly Profiteering” in 2003.

You’ll find the entire Kapatiran article here and can download the WRC Telecom flyer here

Save Our Postshop – Day of Action

2009-09-16T11:17:00.014+12:00

SAVE OUR POSTSHOP

Community Protest

At Eastgate Post Shop

(map)

Saturday

September 19

11.00am – 1.00pm

From the 31st October, Kiwibank and Bill Pay facilities at the Linwood Post Shop on Stanmore Road will close. Letter and parcel sending services will remain along with the private letter box facility.

The Local Community is organising a Day of Action to protest these service closures and have called for support -

Please help

be at the Eastgate Post Shop at 11am

Meet 10.30 am at Linwood Community Arts Centre (corner of Worcester & Stanmore) if you need a ride.

For information email:

saveourpostshop@vodafone.co.nz

> Background ...............>Media Coverage

Maritime Union Launch Campaign to Save Port

2009-09-16T10:01:00.009+12:00

The Maritime Union is hosting a public meeting on the future of the Port of Timaru this week.

"Robbies"

(Hibernian Hotel)

7.30pm

Thursday 17th September

All concerned local people are invited to the meeting, including port workers, unions, business, industry, farmers, and all those concerned with the future of the port.

The Maritime Union will be represented by General Secretary Trevor Hanson and National President Phil Adams as well as local representatives.

Mr Hanson says national and local government representatives have been invited.

He says the driver for the meeting is the recent decision by Fonterra to bypass the Port of Timaru for its exports.

Mr Hanson says this is a mistake and will have bad outcomes for the regional economy.

"In our view it is imperative that the move by Fonterra is reviewed and a co-ordinated plan be put in place to ensure that the future of the Port of Timaru is not undermined."

This issue is of great importance and Timaru deserves a say on its own future, he says.

"This decision will have a significant impact on employment in Timaru. The major impact will be felt over time if the Port of Timaru becomes a second rate port due to the current situation, which could threaten many different businesses and future economic development in the Timaru region."

Mr Hanson says those affected include port workers, farmers, exporters, the marine and maritime industry, local retailers, and all those whose livelihood depends directly or indirectly on the Port of Timaru.

He says similar problems have been experienced in other regional ports, such as New Plymouth, but it appears a stronger and more co-ordinated response has improved the situation in those regions.

"It is our view that Timaru needs to come together on this issue and fight for its future."

More Information
> Port of Timaru Campaign webpage
> Maritime Union of New Zealand webpage
> Timaru Herald coverage

Don't let the sun set on night classes

2009-09-14T22:25:00.008+12:00

Education - a Workers Issue

Workers Rights activists, attended the Stop Night Class Cuts rally in the Cathedral Square Saturday which drew about 200 opponents of the governments, short sighted decision by the to cut 80% funding to school based Adult Community Education .

Organised by the PPTA and Class (Community Learning Association Through Schools) the rally was one of many held nationwide in a National Day of Action and followed on from the successful meeting at Papanui High School in late July where 500 packed the school hall to hear from both supporters and opponents of the of the disastrous cuts.

An informal survey shows at least 25% of schools currently offering adult community education (ACE) courses will be calling it quits, thanks to an 80% cut in their government funding. If the $16 million funding cut goes ahead only three out of 11 Wellington schools currently offering ACE programmes will continue to do so. In Dunedin it is likely there will be no night classes at all.

Boozing – a Government Issue

Several of those speaking from the platform noted the emotional and social cost of losing community based education and with it a further fracture of social cohesion – a matter of little concern to the Government more interested in ensuring that those who attend the Rugby World Cup will “have a good time, go back with memories, maybe a hangover or two”.

On the same day that PM Key was enthusing about the seventy six million dollar ‘party central’, it was announced that one in six New Zealanders are being born into poverty – with 20,000 more children dependent on social welfare than a year ago.

The new threat to people’s rights

2009-09-11T23:45:00.003+12:00

Search & Surveillance Bill 2009

There is a proposed new law before the Parliament that will greatly expand the powers of the state to conduct surveillance and require people to provide information.

This trend has serious implications for political activists.

This new law gives powers to an even wider web of non-police state agencies that have a law enforcement power, such as conservation, fisheries or labour. It is not difficult to see how these agencies come into conflict with activists and protest-related activities. The powers proposed under this Bill must relate to an alleged criminal offence, but that is not a difficult threshold to reach – trespass, for example, is a criminal offence that potentially carries a prison sentence. It will be relatively easy to repackage the monitoring and collecting of intelligence on political activities as ‘criminal surveillance’.

Take Action

200 Telecom workers laid off today

2009-09-11T07:10:00.005+12:00

Up to 200 Telecom lines engineers will be made redundant tomorrow as Telecom's new contractor, Visionstream, attempts to take over operations in Northland and most of Auckland including the city's CBD, says the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union.

The takeover is the biggest single transfer to take place and comes as 400 EPMU members refuse to lose income and forfeit their employment rights by signing up to the Visionstream contract.

EPMU national industry organiser Joe Gallagher says the takeover marks a significant change in the way the Telecom network is maintained.

"Tomorrow hundreds of waged workers are handing in their tools and walking away from jobs they've held for years, and from Monday the network will be in the hands of an understaffed company contracting workers desperate to keep their heads above water.

"Our information is that Visionstream are still well off getting the numbers of workers they need and right now with faults in Northland alone numbering more than 600 we can't see any way the company will be able to maintain the network for any serious length of time, let alone extend it.

"This whole change-over is a fiasco that has caused huge distress to our members, inconvenience to network users and is likely to see serious network problems develop in the near future.

"Telecom and Visionstream need to face up to this mess and talk to us about negotiating a fair outcome before it's too late."

Elsewhere

The Labour Opposition, in a sudden burst of enthusiasm for the plight of workers launched a campaign around MP Darien Fenton’s Redundancy Protection Bill launched yesterday in Parliament. You can download a FAQ (sic) sheet here and visit the webpage here.

Slavery by any name

2009-09-10T07:46:00.006+12:00

If you were to take all the hyperbole at face value you’d be forgiven for believing that the Governments Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme was a raging success. Propaganda is one thing, the facts on the ground something else.

The scheme according to the Labour Department “facilitates the temporary entry of overseas workers mainly from the Pacific to plant, maintain, harvest and pack crops in the horticulture and viticulture industries to meet labour shortages”.

Simple really, kindly NZ horticulturists, with the assistance of the Government acting as an employment agency offers work to pacific peoples to met labour shortages. Everybody wins.

Yeah Right - a great beer advert but little else.

Workers Rights activist Byron Clark laid bare the facts of the case in a presentation to the weekly WEA-WRC series What About the Workers. Underpinning his talk with the work of Swedish political scientist Lina Ericsson, Byron illustrated a scheme that amounts to little more than a return to the days of “blackbirding”.

Lina, from Jönköping University, conducted her research with migrant workers in rural New Zealand under the (RSE) scheme for her thesis ‘The Ni-Vanuatu RSE-Worker: Earning, Spending, Saving, and Sending’. Her field work uncovered a number of domestic and international labour law violations, conclusions shared by research by Swinburne University which concludes that the significant difficulties arising from (RSE) scheme “cannot be dismissed as teething problems”.

Among others to add their voice to the cries of concern are the NZCTU, International Trade Union Confederation and Presbyterian Church.

You can hear Byron interview Lina here and download her thesis here. (PDF)

The WEA-WRC series What About the Workers is held weekly at the WEA (59 Gloucester Street Christchurch). Soup, bread, tea and coffee at 5.30, talk and discussion begins at 6pm

2009-09-02T15:35:00.005+12:00

Support the 220 National Distribution Union members employed by Foodstuffs DC who are walking off the job across the South Island on Thursday afternoon (3rd September) in protest at the lack of any offer from Foodstuffs South Island to improve their wages and conditions.

After 6 months of fruitless negotiations NDU members will not only walk off the job, they intend to also protest outside the supermarkets owned by some of the Foodstuffs Board members.

In Christchurch, these places will be:

Halswell New World
Owned by Barry Gray.
Where: 346-360 Halswell Road, Christchurch
Time: 12.30 – 2.30pm
map

Northlands Pak n Save
Owned by Stephen Boock.
Where: Northlands Shopping Centre, Main North Road/Sissons Drive, Papanui
Time: 2.15 – 4.00pm

map

Despite negotiations commencing in February the company has consistently refused to improve the wages and conditions of members at negotiations. By offering nothing - no wage increase, no improved conditions - it has made a mockery of a genuine bargaining process.

The Union believes the company is acting in bad faith and is using the recession rhetoric to prevent legitimate and well overdue pay rises. By contrast, Foodstuffs’ main competitor Progressive Enterprises (owners of Woolworths, Countdown and Foodtown) supermarkets pays $3-$4 more per hour for doing the same work.

Foodstuffs controls 57% of the NZ supermarket industry. All members are asking for is a fair decent living wage.

The Union hopes to get the support from members of the public thru signing a Public petition calling on CEO Steve Anderson (who earns $18,000 per week) to share some of Foodstuffs’ big profits with their low paid staff. Feel free to start gathering names during and after the strike action and fax it to our Christchurch Office (03) 366-6150.

Public forum: Oppose NZ intervention in Afghanistan

2009-08-28T12:43:00.001+12:00

New Zealand soldiers have been deployed in Afghanistan for longer than in any other overseas deployment in the army’s history. Now the government is sending in the SAS again. Whereas most people in NZ opposed the invasion of Iraq by Western powers, many still see Afghanistan as the “good war” and there is little public debate about what is really happening in that country and how Western intervention, including the role played by NZ, has brought new misery to the people of Afghanistan.

Come along and hear what has really been happening in Afghanistan since the invasion at the end of 2001 and why NZ armed forces, along with all other Western armed forces, should be withdrawn.

Monday August 31 7:30pm
WEA, 59 Gloucester St
(map)

Telecom Day of Action

2009-08-21T10:19:00.009+12:00

MONDAY AUGUST 24

On Monday 24th August, Telco technicians will be marching from the EPMU offices at 298 Cashel St, through the High St Mall to picket Telecom at 109 Hereford St (Between Durham and Colombo Streets)

March leaves at 1130am and the picket will likely finish at 1pm- all are invited and encouraged to attend and show support!

Background and resources

> Download A5 flyer
> Download FQA backgrounder
> Send an email Telecom's CEO, Paul Reynolds
>Sign petition in support of Telecom Technicians

Factory in the Hands of Workers

2009-08-18T16:00:00.005+12:00

FASINPAT

the Factory without a Boss

The workers at Argentina's occupied ceramics factory FASINPAT won a major victory this week, the factory now definitively belongs to the people in legal terms. The provincial legislature voted in favour of expropriating the ceramics factory and handing it over to the workers cooperative to manage legally and indefinitely. Since 2001, the workers at Zanon have fought for legal recognition of worker control at Latin America's largest ceramics factory which has created jobs, spearheaded community projects, supported social movements world-wide and shown the world that workers don't need bosses.

"This is incredible, we are happy. The expropriation is an act of justice," said Alejandro Lopez the General Secretary of the Ceramists Union, overwhelmed by the emotion of the victory. "We don't forget the people who supported us in our hardest moments, or the 100,000 people who signed the petition supporting our bill."

Hundreds of workers from the FASINPAT factory, factory without a boss, waited anxiously until the late hours of the night for the legislature's decision. The expropriation law passed 26 votes in favor and 9 votes against the bill. Thousands of supporters from other workers' organizations, human rights groups and social movements, along with entire families and students, joined the workers as they waited outside the provincial legislature in the capital city of Neuquén. Enduring the Patagonian winter weather, activists played drums and shouted: "here they are the workers of Zanon, workers without a boss."

FASINPAT has operated under worker control since 2001 when Zanon's owners decided to close its doors and fire the workers without paying months of back pay or severance pay. Leading up to the massive layoffs and plant's closure, workers went on strike in 2000. The owner, Luis Zanon, with over 75 million dollars in debt to public and private creditors (including the World Bank for over 20 million dollars), fired en masse most of the workers and closed the factory in 2001-a bosses' lockout. In October 2001, workers declared the plant under worker control. The workers subsequently camped outside the factory for four months, pamphleteering and partially blocking a highway leading to the capital city of Neuquén. While the workers were camping outside the factory, a court ruled that the employees could sell off remaining stock. After the stock ran out, on March 2, 2002, the workers' assembly voted to start up production without a boss. Since the occupation, the workers renamed the factory FASINPAT (Factory without a Boss).

Read the rest here

By: Marie Trigona

More Info
> The Working World
> The Take
> Working without Bosses

Pix (1) (2)

Yes, we were there as part of the Workers Rights Campaign

2009-07-28T21:39:00.016+12:00

“To be Educated is the only way to be Free”

.............................................................................- - José Martí

The great Cuban philosopher, educator, writer and independence leader would have been proud of the citizens of Christchurch on Monday night.

Some 500 of them packed the Papanui High School hall and pilloried two hapless Government list M.P.s (Wagner and Gilmore) over their proposed cuts in the funding of adult and community education.

There isn’t space here to quote at any length from the excellent speeches by Opposition M.P. Marilyn Street and Papanui High Headmaster Denis Pyatt. Suffice it to say that they both savaged the shallow and hypocritical arguments of the Government’s representatives. As did, with similar erudition and eloquence - and great passion - every single speaker from the floor of the meeting.

It is clear that all the Government wants is job training, (mostly for factory-fodder jobs that are fast disappearing anyway), not an educated and culturally advanced citizenry. Even the focus on providing a workforce for its capitalist friends is ironic, given that in its previous unpleasant term of office the National Party totally wrecked a generally excellent apprenticeship system that had served generations of New Zealanders.

The proposal to make what little funding remains both selective as to subjects taught and contestable as to who gets the ‘contract’ (enter the private sector providers...) went down like a lead balloon.

Wagner and Gilmore bleated that the Government had to be careful because “it’s taxpayers’ money we’re were spending”.

“We are the taxpayers”, roared the meeting.

The arrogant and unpleasant Gilmore attracted the most vociferous contempt of the meeting when he posed the question would we rather the Government cut assistance to children with Down’s syndrome. That sick and manipulative remark was met, when the disgust died down, with the demand that if money was short they should take it from the increased grants to their rich mates’ private schools.

Workers’ Rights Campaign members were very well received when they spoke from the floor, and two motions were carried unanimously:

............- Demanding that the cuts be cancelled; and

............- Calling for a national day of action against the cuts.

More information

...Download
> Economic Evaluation of Adult and Community Education Outcomes –
Final Report by Price Waterhouse Coopers June 2008 (PDF)
> Economic Evaluation of Adult and Community Education Outcomes –
Executive Summary Report (8 pages) by Price Waterhouse Coopers June 2008
> Postcard to MP’s (SNCC)
> Print Petition (SNCC)

...Visit
> Stop Night Class Cuts
> Adult and Community Education Aotearoa (ACE)

Real Jobs not McJobs

2009-07-14T08:01:00.006+12:00

.
Picket this Wednesday 1pm

Work and Income

Christchurch Central Office

231 High Street
Map

Real Jobs, NOT McJobs

SOCIAL WELFARE NOT CORPORATE WELFARE

,
Why are taxpayers subsidising wages at McDonalds? - The Paula Bennett interview

Last financial year McDonalds made a profit of $23m, after tax.
.
But during the next five years it's going to further benefit from the generosity of tax-payers.
.
Under an agreement with Work and Income, for each unemployed worker McDonalds hires, it will qualify for a subsidy of up to $16,000 a year.
.
Effectively Kiwis are subsidising the worker's weekly wage to the tune of up $300 a week
.
Paula Bennett tells John Campbell why

Picket this Wednesday: Real Jobs not McJobs

2009-07-11T18:08:00.000+12:00

The government has made a deal with fast food giant McDonalds that will see young people receiving the unemployment benefit sent to jobs at McDonalds restaurants, and have their training subsidised by the taxpayer. Every beneficiary McDonald’s hires will get the company up to $16,000- the equivalent of about 8 months wages for a McDonalds worker.

Giving people low paying casualised jobs is not the solution to unemployment. This is not a scheme to help the unemployed, it is corporate welfare for a large corporation. As if paying minimum wage wasn't enough for them, McDonalds gets the state subsidising its wage bill, and WINZ acting as its HR department - McDonalds has an annual staff turn over rate of over 100% because of its low wages and horrendous working conditions.

Come to the picket, let the government know we want REAL JOBS, NOT McJOBS and SOCIAL WELFARE NOT CORPORATE WELFARE
1pm, Wednesday (the 15th) outside WINZ High St, Christchurch Central

Organised by the Workers Rights Campaign.
Contact Byron byroncclark@gmail.com

AB's v Italy

2009-06-24T13:23:00.007+12:00

Pre-game signature collection

Saturday June 27th

6-00pm

meet at
C1 Espresso
(map)

More Information

..........Mobile: 027 226-9950
..........Email

If you have a clipboard please bring it along

Happy Jack's “consultative forum”

2009-06-12T10:22:00.015+12:00

John Key had a “consultative forum” in Christchurch on Wednesday evening.

It was neither consultative nor a forum. Key sought no information and no advice from the audience, and there was no public discussion. That would be the hallmark of a genuine consultative forum. Besides, what kind of consultative forum charges admittance!

Prepared questions were put by a very few carefully selected representatives of the ruling élite and filtered by the Editor of the Press who chaired the farce.

No representatives of ordinary working people – those on the sharp end of capitalism’s latest skewer – were invited to ask questions, and precious few were in the audience, which seemed mostly to consist of Fendaltons and Merivales.

But not all, thankfully. Members of the Workers Rights Campaign – moved by functionaries from the outside shelter of the Town Hall to the footpath – were pleased at the number of attendees who signed the Unite petition to increase the minimum wage to $15 per hour and index it.

Signers included several prominent local citizens. Gerry Brownlee, in at least one respect the most prominent, refused. To no-one's surprise. He isn’t on the minimum wage after all.

The freedom of speech exercised by WRC members outside the hall was in stark contrast the limitation on it inside. The only way they could inform or advise – consult, that is - was to unfurl a banner which read:

We won’t pay for the failure of their system
Workers Rights Campaign

After a brief struggle over their banner, they were evicted from the hall and issued with a three year trespass order from the Town Hall premises by the police – who claimed they had been given that authority in advance by the City Council. The police also recorded their names, addresses and places of employment. And, together with their colleagues who had been obtaining signatures outside the premises, police took their photographs.

The WRC will continue publicly to identify the inherent instability of the capitalist system. Every time it has one of its periodic crises it makes the most vulnerable pay. Its immoral basis of greed, its frequent wars over resources, its cultural degeneration and its environmental despoliation indicate that it is a profoundly corrupt system for any society with pretentions to be civilised.

You can see the Press’s a highly edited video of the event here.

> Download the Living Wage petition here
> Download the Living Wage flyer here

The coppers and WRC activists

discsussing tresspass laws

outside the town hall

Download Petition Flyer

2009-05-19T11:41:00.002+12:00

click here

Kiwis don’t rip each other off

2009-05-07T15:29:00.014+12:00

The Zeal 320 Campaign

They fly Air New Zealand flights.

They wear Air New Zealand uniforms.

They win Air New Zealand excellence awards for their service.

But they’re paid thousands less than Air New Zealand cabin crew,

Our values are clear – Kiwis don’t rip each other off

Click here to find out what it's about

Further activity in Christchurch:

Friday May 8th

8.00am -10.00am

At Totem Pole Christchurch airport
(Last roundabout before entering the airport)
map

Sunday May 10th

2.00pm – 4.00pm

At Totem Pole Christchurch airport
(Last roundabout before entering the airport)
map

Pix from the rally outside Air NZ Holiday Shop today

Checkout ZEALGIRL's BLOG

Text from EPMU advertisement

ZEAL Workers' Rally

2009-05-06T07:32:00.006+12:00

ZEAL Workers' Rally

11.00 a.m. - 12.00 noon
Thursday
7 May

Air NZ Holiday Shop
549 Colombo St South,

( near South City Mall - MAP)

Shssss! Something to hide

2009-04-28T08:31:00.009+12:00

Partnership or Struggle – a teach-in they won’t advertise

Quite what it is about ordinary working people getting together to talk about a ‘response to the financial crisis’ isn’t that clear – MP’s talk about it, business people talk about it, even Union spokesperson talk about it - the prospect however of the subjects of all this discussion (workers) wanting to have a go has unsettled some. Among them GOclassifieds where we had hoped to spend a very limited advertising budget.

No can do - our advert referred to “websites* which contain propaganda” and the email continues “ even without the websites we cannot place them in community notices". You can find all the emails here.

Here’s the propaganda they didn’t want you to see

Community Notice for the Workers Rights Campaign

"A Workers Response to the Financial Crisis”
A teach-in organised by the Workers Rights Campaign

Saturday May 2nd
1-00pm

Canterbury WEA, 59 Gloucester Street

More for information:
View
Phone: 352-7251

NOTE: *one of our number was placing two advertisements one about the Cuba Hurricane Appeal Gig for the Christchurch Cuba Friendship Society and ours.

>Teach-in Programme <

The ‘Jobs Summit’ Picket

2009-04-22T11:08:00.005+12:00

As planned, the Workers Rights Campaign conducted a symbolic picket of the Government’s so-called “Jobs Summit” at the Christchurch Town Hall on Friday 17th. The picket was supported by a goodly number of people from the Alliance Party and the Workers Party as well as a representative from Socialist Worker and several politically unaffiliated supporters. There was no representation from the Labour or Green parties. We were not especially surprised. Labour Party people were inside the “Summit” together with National Party Cabinet Ministers and officials from Labour Party affiliated Trade Unions.

The picket did not attract much media attention, except from CTV, which interviewed Campaign spokesman Paul Piesse. But neither did the media pay a great deal of attention to the “Summit” itself. Perhaps because everyone knows that it is largely a PR exercise that fails utterly to confront the root causes of unemployment – the inherent and cyclic crises of the capitalist system.

The Campaign emphasised:

that working people should not have to pay for the fundamental instability of a system designed by and for the rich; and
that an honest attempt to mitigate the worst effects of capitalist instability (evidenced by over-production and excess productive capacity leading to job losses) would be a reduced working week for no loss of pay.

The campaign will continue, at every opportunity, to draw attention to the lie that (as the evil Margaret Thatcher put it) “There Is No Alternative”, and to the demonstrable fact that the capitalist system is corrupt, unethical, unfair, warlike and undemocratic.

In the capitalist market economy, every dollar you have to spend or invest is a vote in the economy; the more dollars you have, the more votes. Capital and big dollars were represented inside the “Summit”; the interests of working people were represented outside on the picket.

We Won’t Pay For Your Failed System

2009-04-10T10:31:00.013+12:00

Picket the Government’s “Jobs Summit”

12 noon – 1.00pm

Friday 17th April

Christchurch Town Hall

Tired of bailing out the rich, who use us and discard us for their own benefit?

Refuse to pay the price for the failure of the capitalist system in yet another of its periodic ‘busts’.

Join the picket and demand -

4Real jobs with real pay

435 hours work with no loss in pay

Media release
Street map
Facility plan

Workers Rights Campaign to picket Christchurch Jobs Summit

2009-04-09T22:10:00.003+12:00

The Workers Rights Campaign will picket the Government’s “Jobs Summit” at the Town Hall on Friday 17^th between noon and 1:00 p.m.

Campaign spokesperson Paul Piesse said the picket is because:

"We know it (the Jobs Summit) to be essentially a pathetic public relations exercise for the Government and its fat-cat Business friends;”

“We know that its decisions on employment – especially issues of job creation, redundancies and reductions in paid hours of work and thus income - will not and cannot assure working people of properly paid, secure employment;”

"We refuse to pay the price for the failure of the capitalist system in yet another of its periodic ‘busts’. We’re tired of bailing out the rich, who use us and discard us for their own benefit.”

The Workers Rights Campaign, Mr Piesse said, “Notes the contemptible hypocrisy of Business and Government, weeping crocodile tears about job losses while they happily contract out and shift our jobs offshore to cheap labour countries.”

The Campaign demands full employment. Mr Piesse said that the Campaign has the view that “it is the absolute moral duty of any decent government to ensure that all citizens have honest work available with liveable wages”.

“One way to ensure that”, Mr Piesse said, was “to legislate for a basic 35 hour week without loss of pay”. He noted that “there isn’t much point to our civilisation unless generation by generation and decade by decade, technological development allows for a reduction in the portion of people’s lives they were obliged to devote to earning a living. The economy should be about people, not Capital.”

Help stop Air NZ strike-breaking

2009-03-31T14:05:00.004+13:00

EPMU News Special
March 30th 2009

You might have heard that Zeal 320 flight attendants belonging to the EPMU are taking industrial action at Air New Zealand. Now they need your help.

These workers are paid tens of thousands of dollars a year less than people doing the same job but who are employed directly by Air New Zealand. They just want some basic fairness.

But rather than negotiate a fair deal the airline has spent six months stalling, has been threatening our members with legal action, has misled the public about their wages in the media and is now trying to hire strike-breakers through Hudson Recruitment. (You can see the job advert online here.)

We know the airline has already tried to get other Air New Zealand flight attendants to strike-break but Air New Zealanders have stood by their co-workers and refused to do it. Hiring people in from the outside is the airline's last option.

The union is looking into what action it can take about Air New Zealand's strike-breaking, including whether it is even lawful. But the fact is this dispute will be won or lost industrially, not in the courts.

And that's where you and every other Kiwi who believes in fairness at work comes in.

We figure if Air New Zealand wants job applications to work in the airline then let's send them job applications - as many as we can.

Maybe you once dreamed about working in the airline business, or maybe your kids still do. Maybe you've never considered it before. In any case, the more people that apply for the job the better.

You can apply by clicking here.

There's more information as well as template CVs for you to base your application on at our campaign website.

Simply change the details on the template CVs and send it on to Hudson Recruitment.

If you don't have the time to apply please send them an email to tell them to stop strikebreaking. Just make sure you put their reference number (BZ/28520) for the strike breaker jobs in the subject line.

To find out more about the campaign and why we're taking the action we are visit our webpage.

You can also support Zeal workers through the Facebook supporters group here.

Thank you for your support. We're stronger together!

More Info

> Scabrous Behaviour - Alliance Party Media Release

Ports of Auckland NOT for sale

2009-03-14T09:18:00.004+13:00

Maritime Union says Ports of Auckland must remain in public hands

The Maritime Union of New Zealand says that any proposal to privatize the Ports of Auckland would create a "perfect storm of opposition."Maritime Union Local 13 President Denis Carlisle says those pushing the plan were people out of time.

"There is obviously a faction out there who want to bring back port privatization plans from the dead."

Mr Carlisle says that the privatization strategy with the Ports of Auckland failed in the 1990s due to mass public opposition and recent attempts to part-privatize the Ports of Lyttelton had also ended in failure.

"It seems bizarre at a time when the deregulation and privatization agenda has now been completely discredited globally, there are people who still want to continue on down the same old path."

He says that the port has recently seen major productivity gains and to complain about reduced profits when the global economy was in crisis showed privatization proponents were out of touch with reality.

Mr Carlisle says it was obvious that there were problems with the port system in New Zealand.

These problems were due to lack of a national ports plan and regulation, leading to self-destructive competition and the casualization of the workforce, and privatisation would only make matters worse.

"In the end analysis, the role of ports is to ensure the flow of goods to and from New Zealand, not as a cash cow for private investors looking for a quick buck."

He says it made no sense for a small, maritime trade dependant nation like New Zealand to pass over control of its transport infrastructure to private interests whose only motive is short term profit.

He says that if board members were not comfortable with the status of the Ports of Auckland they should clear out.

Background Information
> Foreign Control - Key facts
> Privatisation by Stealth
> Profit plunge sparks talk of city's port sale

Useful links
> Keep Our Port Public
> Maritime Union of New Zealand

Pacific Brands and Sealord

2009-03-05T22:23:00.004+13:00

The Workers Rights Campaign today expressed its profound contempt for the so-called captains of industry in their ignoble fleeing the country.

Spokesman Paul Piesse referred to the latest in a long list of examples – Pacific Brands and Sealords. He said that these enterprises, built on the backs of New Zealand workers, were now deserting the country, taking both the capital created by those workers and even the workers’ very jobs with them.

The fact that one of these firms is foreign-owned and one is NZ-owned indicates that workers are just as easily discarded no matter who owns the companies.

But many New Zealanders, especially Maori workers, might be surprised that the largely Maori-owned Sealords would just as bloodlessly discard workers – including many Maori workers – in order to invest in cheaper-labour Argentinean fisheries.

“So much”, he noted, “for the sham claims of traditional fishing rights as Taonga”.
Mr Piesse claimed that all this proved that globalised Capitalism ultimately has no loyalty to anything except maximising profits - wherever and however.

“All the be-suited posturing at the Government’s jobs conference would not save a single about-to-be-exported job, since all our leading politicians are creatures of Capital and will not challenge its right to go where it wants to, even to the detriment of New Zealand workers”.

“The first responsibility of politicians is to have a care for the people who elect them. Despite their bluster, it is clear that our current lot have more concern for profit than for people”, Mr Piesse said.

Text of Media Release Thursday March 5th

> Community backlash over sackings of Pacific Brands workers

90 day jobs don't count

2009-03-05T10:17:00.007+13:00

Below is a press release, form Green MP Sue Bradford, addressing the issue of a worker offered employed under the Fire at Will legislation and refused Work and Income support.

Bradford’s parliamentary questions to Paula Bennett, the Minister for Social Development and Employment, can be found here.

If you want to tell Ms Bennett what you think of this nonsense you can email her here.

When National rushed the 90 day bill through under urgency last year, the Minister of Labour Kate Wilkinson repeatedly assured Parliament and the public that people on benefits would not be disadvantaged, Ms Bradford said.

"I am therefore alarmed by this case in which a Dunedin man with a young family got a job in Christchurch starting tomorrow and needed help with bond money for a house, but was declined because Work and Income did not see employment under the 90 day rule as being the same as other jobs.

"However Work and Income did grant him $1050 for his family to live temporarily in a cabin at a camping ground.

"This man is committed to getting off the benefit and into paid work. He's moved cities and is trying to do his best for his family.

"It is ludicrous that Work and Income is prepared to pay for a temporary stay at a camping ground, while refusing to help the family with bond for a permanent house.

"When I asked the Minister of Social Development Paula Bennett questions about this in Parliament this afternoon, she seemed unaware of the problem.

"She also did not seem able to give any clear assurance that unemployed people will not in future be subject to similar discrimination when they apply for assistance from Work and Income.

"I call on Ms Bennett and the Government to take a long hard look at the impact of the 90 day law on everyone moving between the benefit system and employment, something they should have done a lot sooner.

"All jobseekers deserve to be treated the same whether the employment they secure is under the 90 day rule or not."

WRC in the news

2009-03-02T07:21:00.003+13:00

From NewsTalk ZB

Even before it becomes law, the new 90-day trial period has sparked noisy protests.

A march is underway in central Auckland against the measure, which allows businesses with fewer than 20 staff to fire people in their first 90 days of employment. Unions are calling it the "fire at will law."

In Christchurch, a group calling itself The Workers Rights Campaign has picketed National MP Nicola Wagner's office.

They plan to take their objections directly to the premises of employers making use of the law to sack people unfairly.

Christchurch picket on Flickr

Employer 3% - Workers 0%

2009-02-23T19:45:00.000+13:00

Workers from Ashburton’s Rosebank Rest Home & Hospital, members of the New Zealand Nurse Organisation (NZNO), along with supporters from other unions and social justice organisations picketing the offices of Stuart Leck the owner of Rosebank in Christchurch CBD over the lunch hour today. This local picket follow on from pickets outside Rosebank in Ashburton.

Leck, who owns Rosebank Residential Home Limited through Lexson Investment Limited, has offered the workers a zero pay increase during negotiations for a collective agreement. The NZNO commenced bargaining in May last year.

NZNO Organiser, Steve Howard describes the employer’s behaviour as outrageous. “Simply put an offer of a zero pay increase means that these already very low paid workers would not have a pay rise for two years,” Howard said.

The 30 odd picketers distributed explanatory flyers and pink roses to passersby discussing the issue with interested members of the public, and occasionally burst into song. Accompanied by the sound of wooden spoons on plastic buckets, the favourite chorus of the specially written poem rang out along the street. “Stuart Leck who owns the place, He is too ashamed to show his face.”

The picketers were supported by members of other unions (PSA, SFWU, NDU) WRC activists and several members of the public who stopped to lend a hand.

Poem for Rosebank

What makes us moan, its Rosebank home
Profits first & workers last, we’re here today to have a blast

Granny says “shame on you,
Mr Leck who’ll care for you?”

Stuart Leck who owns the place
He is too ashamed to show his face.

He’s stinging Granny for more dough
While keeping workers wages low

The government gave you 3%
But workers haven’t seen a cent!

They’ve had no extra fo 2 long years
What have you got between your ears

Stuart Leck show your face
You’re a disgrace to the human race.

More Information
> Copy of NZNO statement
> Working in a Rest Home – RNZ Interview

Picket this Friday

2009-02-21T18:53:00.000+13:00

The Workers Rights Campaign is organising a picket this Friday (the 27th) at 1pm outside National MP Nicky Wagner's office 189 Montreal St (see below for map). All welcome, the more people the better.

View Larger Map

DOWNLOAD FLYER

Making National’s “Sack at Will” law a dead letter!

2009-02-19T10:06:00.001+13:00

The Workers Right Campaign was established at a forum hosted by the Workers Party and the Alliance Party to discuss the new 90-day ‘Sack at Will Act’ the National-led government’s Xmas present to workers.

Speakers at the forum were Andrew Mckenzie (Alliance; and a lawyer specialising in labour issues); Byron Clark (Workers Party; youth union activist); Fay Birch (cleaner and worker-advocate, specialising in personal grievance issues) and Karolin Potter (Human Rights Commission).

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