Review: The Significance of the 1912 Waihi Strike
Review: The Significance of the 1912 Waihi Strike Martin Gregory International Socialist Organisation, 2012 ISBN: 978-0-473-22214-7 $5 Reviewed by Andrew Cooper On Monday a force of thugs and scabs attacked the union hall under the gaze of the police with a hail of missiles. A plug of gelignite was thrown, exploding just outside the hall […]
Ports of Auckland signs agreement with scab union PortPro
It has been announced that the Ports of Auckland management have signed a collective agreement with the scab union PortPro that was established by 30 strikebreaking stevedores. This is a setback for the Maritime Union, which has been trying to negotiate a new collective agreement since August of 2011.
Rebellion of the Rank and File
On 17 September a joint-union stopwork meeting of Auckland bus drivers voted against their union leaders’ recommendation to accept the latest NZ Bus offer. Unless a concession is made Auckland’s 800 bus drivers will be on strike next Monday, and plan to strike every Monday for weeks if necessary. NZ Bus is owned by Infratil, […]
Aotearoa: the State of the Class Struggle
During the whole of 2011 there were a mere 12 work stoppages and they involved barely 2,000 workers and only 4,850 person-days lost (to exploitation); so says the Department of Labour. Even worse, only 9 of the 12 stoppages were actual stoppages. The other 3 were what the DOL calls ‘partial strikes’, which are not […]
A Victory for Talley’s AFFCO Workers
Union Hard! This slogan from the locked-out and striking men and women of the Meatworkers’ Union had real meaning over the summer and autumn of this year – for twelve hard weeks they faced off against a company determined to break their union. Talley’s did not manage to do this, and it didn’t manage to […]
Beating back the bosses
It’s the middle of winter and four years into a National government but spring is in the air. When Key was re-elected we were worried. He won the election on the back of a record low vote (around 50% of people on the Maori roll didn’t vote) but he claimed an endorsement for another three […]
Low paid women in revolt: Nationalise Oceania!
Low paid aged care workers at Oceania homes have been driven to revolt. Members of the Service and Food Workers Union Nga Ringa Tota and nurses in the NZNO first struck on 1st March, and again on 7th. Stopwork meetings took place on 14th March and strikes on the 19th and again on 5th April. […]
Current local struggles
Police shootings, brutality cases in Rotorua Police brutality was in the spotlight again in early April after it was admitted that police shot Napier man Lachlan Kelly-Tumarae not once as was originally asserted, but at least eight and as many as fifteen times, fatally wounding the 19-year old. Questions were also asked of another case […]
War to the knife: Meat workers fight back
Multi-millionaire Kiwi capitalists the Talley family have launched an attack on freezing workers they employ at AFFCO plants in the North Island. Talley’s control a huge chunk of New Zealand’s food production and make fat profits. The freezing workers they employ are willing to fight for the right to a union contract. And that’s why […]
Reflections on the Ports of Auckland dispute
The Ports of Auckland company (POAL) is wholly owned by Auckland Council, run by Labour Party member Mayor Len Brown and Labour-led City Vision ticket councilors. In base treachery these council leaders have been overseeing an attempted re-run of the 1951 defeat of the Auckland wharfies. Labour Party leader David Shearer first struck a pose […]
