Invercargill Pak’n’Save workers protest!
On Saturday and Sunday workers at Pak ‘n’ Save Invercargill protested outside their workplace against low wages and workplace bullying. To a chorus of supportive car horns and megaphone siren blasts, the workers led a noisy picket alongside trade unionists, socialist activists and supporters from throughout the community. The issues at stake are simple. Some […]
Defeat the Bill! The struggle against the Employment Contracts Bill, 1991
‘We’ll need to go on strike, an ongoing strike.’ That’s how Jane Otuafi, a delegate in the Engineers’ Union, responded in March 1991 to the recently elected National government’s plan for an Employment Contracts Act. [1] ‘A general strike is the only answer,’ job delegate Sa Leutele of the Northern Distribution Union agreed. ‘I’ve had […]
We Back the Bus Drivers!
Gowan Ditchburn and Josh O’Sullivan joined bus drivers at yesterday’s strike in Auckland. Stress and Fatigue at Central Depot I got to the bus depot just before 9am. A few workers stood outside the gates blocking the exit with their cars, a dozen or so placards on the fence. I ask one worker how the […]
Blockading the TPPA
It was inspiring to be a part of the TPPA blockade at Sky-City on February 4th 2016. The numbers of those who turned up, from near and far, were more than I had expected. We gathered in Aotea square, from all walks of life and prepared for what may lay ahead. Real Choice, the organisers […]
Wellington Living Wage Advance
After a long debate, a meeting of the Wellington City Council on 28th October voted 9 to 6 in favour of security contract staff being paid a Living Wage. The Council already pays its directly-employed staff a Living Wage. Earlier this year the Council had resolved under the Long Term Plan that they would extend […]
Zero Hours Contracts Treachery
Workers cannot put any trust whatsoever in this double-dealing Key government of liars. When it comes to employment law, under the lead of Workplace Relations minister Michael Woodhouse, they have developed a habit of announcing one thing and doing another. They told the public they were going to stop the exploitation of migrant workers. They […]
Get the Warehouse to pay a Living Wage
Today International Socialists and local Living Wage activists joined striking First Union members in an hour’s action outside the Warehouse store in Porirua. We were asking shoppers to show their support for the in dispute workers by signing protest postcards to The Warehouse Group boss Mark Powell. In that short time over 200 signed. Back […]
Migrant workers’ victory in Korea
Over the past 50 years, few countries have experienced such a dramatic economic rise as South Korea. A country once known for sweatshops and cheap manufactured goods; now produces some of the world’s most advanced ships, cars and electronics. An important part of this process was the state-led export of Korean labour. From 1975-85 over […]
Our struggles – in the courtrooms and out
In March this year Service and Food Workers Union National Secretary, John Ryall stated that unions would be taking more and more employment cases to Court following the latest in a string of successful cases for low-paid employees. He went on to say that litigation was now preferable to collective bargaining, which he described as […]
Marketing Poverty: the Question of Fair Trade
Capitalism is a system based explicitly on the exploitation of the many by the few. Throughout its few short centuries of existence, it has extended massive inequality to every corner of the globe. The supposed “free market” has pushed that process to the extreme, especially between the exploited countries of the global “south” and the […]
