Growing Inequality – and a sign of resistance
The latest Stats NZ Household Income report has revealed that inequality in New Zealand continues to grow. The New Zealand Herald was very careful to split out a number of stories to get the best possible spin, but in combination the picture is stark. The first story was about household income. The median household income […]
Ballot for industrial action by PSA members in the health sector
Over the first few days of August, a secret ballot for industrial action was conducted by Public Service Association (PSA) members in the health sector. The result was a resounding yes to industrial action. More than one third of the 12,000 PSA health members participated in the on-line ballot with 90% voting in favour. Allied […]
Con Devitt: One the Bosses Hated
Con Devitt, an outstanding trade union militant, socialist and organizer, has died at the age of 86. Devitt, a long-time leader of the Boilermakers’ Union in Wellington, made an enormous contribution to the class struggle and the workers’ movement, especially in his important periods of leadership in the 1970s and 1980s. From a working-class home […]
Radical employment law reform needed, says reader
New Zealand workers and unions were hammered by a Bolger National Government king hit in 1991 in the form of the Employment Contracts Act. In 2000 they were provided with some cautious relief in the form of the Clark Government’s Employment Relations Act. Since 2008, the Key Government, aware of the ultimate unpopularity of the […]
Migrant Workers Abuse Scandal in Christchurch: Immigration Bill Not the Answer
In early January there was a rerun of stories in the media about a new law to “crackdown on migrant exploitation.” When the Immigration Amendment Bill No. 2 was introduced in Parliament in October last year First Union highlighted the case of Filipino workers in Christchurch being told that they must work on Saturdays without […]
All the way for equal pay
Kristine Bartlett is a hero. She and her union, the SWFU, are spearheading the fight for equal pay through the courts. Last year Bartlett was in the Employment Court to argue that her miserable $14.46 an hour after 20 years experience as a caregiver breached the Equal Pay Act 1972. Her reasoning was that her […]
Engineers and Servos Ponder Mega-Merger Union
Two of Aotearoa’s largest unions, the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) — my union — and the Service and Food Workers Union (SFWU), may merge early next year. Members of both unions will vote on this in June. With about 56,000 members, a merged union would be by far the largest private sector union […]
Rebuilding Our Unions
Dougal McNeill gave this talk as an introduction to one of the sessions at the ISO’s recent national conference / hui-a-tau, held in Auckland in December. This talk is of necessity arranged in a bitsy, fragmentary, tentative way. That’s because this is the kind of year we’ve had – there has been no single event […]
Web Round-Up: January
A round-up of interesting links and articles from January. The Nasty Nats John Minto profiles Paula Bennett, the politician who wanted all beneficiaries to be subject to invasive blood tests. A picture from summer: John Key is a member of the ruling elite, and nobody should forget this image: two multi-millionaires, forcing austerity policies on […]
Korean Railway Strike – What’s at Stake?
On 31 December, thousands of Korean railway workers returned to work after a three-week strike against government plans to set up a subsidiary company to operate a Korean Train express (KTX) service in competition with the state run Korail. It was the longest railway strike in South Korean history. Korail management and the right wing […]
