Posts on the economy, work, business, income, and labour
Written By: - Date published: 10:41 am, March 12th, 2012 - 47 comments
After months on the side-line, David Shearer and Len Brown have been forced to choose a side in the Ports of Auckland dispute by the irrational and unreasonable behaviour of the Ports management. Shearer has come out against casualisation and marched with the workers in Saturday. Brown has offered mediation between the parties.
Written By: - Date published: 7:25 am, March 12th, 2012 - 36 comments
David Shearer’s private member’s Bill on foreign investment is pure common sense: unless foreign ownership actually adds something substantial to the economy that cannot be supplied by local owners then all foreign investment brings is higher land prices, locking out Kiwis from ownership. Overseas buyers must bring something real to the table. A good first policy.
Written By: - Date published: 1:17 pm, March 11th, 2012 - 83 comments
POAL is on the backfoot industrially, legally, and in terms of public relations.
God only knows what kind of hubris made Gibson and his board think they could get away with attacking their workers like this.
It seems that no matter how many times these corporate ratbags get their arses handed to them by union members they just don’t seem to learn.
Written By: - Date published: 11:12 pm, March 10th, 2012 - 48 comments
The labour dispute is turning into a fiasco for Ports of Auckland. Thousands marched today through Auckland in protest, and cargo loaded by non-union labour is being blacklisted internationally. How long will Ports of Auckland stay on their self-destructive course?
Written By: - Date published: 12:58 pm, March 10th, 2012 - 86 comments
I’m no fan of the people who threw the Lamington at Len Brown. They are the same crew who waltz into every social movement in Auckland, suck the life out of it and move on. But the only winner out of this lamington incident was the Port’s board and the (I’m sure) the self-image of the egotistical morons who threw it. It cost the Maritime Union. It belittled those of us who are infuriated at the Mayor’s response. And it was just plain stupid.
Written By: - Date published: 11:32 am, March 10th, 2012 - 24 comments
Hey John – where’s our “Brighter Future”? Hey National voters – was this what you voted for?
Written By: - Date published: 12:25 pm, March 9th, 2012 - 35 comments
A contrite Mayor Len Brown today offered his apology to Port workers for causing their redundancies by demanding higher port profits then giving them the cold shoulder. “I turned my back on the working class. That ‘we’re on a journey’ BS on RNZ was the final straw. I am donating to the workers the $2,000 they gave my election campaign, and the $270,000 3-year payrise they helped me get when I became Auckland mayor.”
Written By: - Date published: 10:05 am, March 9th, 2012 - 25 comments
Can anyone tell me why the Nats are spending $300m to build and $36m pa to run a 960-bed PPP prison when there are 2000 spare beds in the system and prisoner numbers are projected to fall? Or why Joyce is cutting a dirty ‘convention centre for pokies’ deal when international convention numbers are falling? Or why they’re spending $1b a year on low BCR highways when vehicle numbers are falling?
Written By: - Date published: 7:23 am, March 9th, 2012 - 86 comments
You betrayed the people you pretended to represent Len.
Written By: - Date published: 7:12 pm, March 8th, 2012 - 19 comments
Stuff has a report telling us what we already know: an old boys’ network keeps women out of the boardroom in Australia and New Zealand. This clubbiness is just one of the reasons we’re such an unequal country. A small network of white middle-class males appoint each other to the boards of their companies, then set each other’s pay
Written By: - Date published: 2:18 pm, March 8th, 2012 - 28 comments
Ports of Auckland wants to increase profits by slashing pay-packets by 20% – $6m. So far, the process has cost them at least $28m. Add $9m for redundancies. Add the cost of continuing interruption as the contractors are established. Add the cost of blacklisting. Add the cost of customers that have shifted ports. Len Brown should sack the POAL management for incompetence.
Written By: - Date published: 11:59 am, March 8th, 2012 - 2 comments
Scott at Imperator Fish has kindly given us permission to syndicate posts from his blog – the original of this post is here: Widespread industrial action, economic growth projections revised downwards, more job losses, attacks on the welfare safety net, selling our strategic assets, and no strategy to grow our economy.
Written By: - Date published: 11:20 am, March 8th, 2012 - 103 comments
Len Brown gets a Dear Len over his performance over the Ports of Auckland dispute.
“I delivered your leaflets in the rain. I erected your hoardings across Auckland. I phoned and canvassed support for you. I encouraged my friends to vote for you. But it’s over. Frankly, I find your protestations that you could not help the 292 sacked wharfies asking to be able to work to live and not live to work offensive. Don’t play the victim: your salary is too big.”
Written By: - Date published: 9:48 am, March 8th, 2012 - 4 comments
Scott at Imperator Fish has kindly given us permission to syndicate posts from his blog – the original of this post is here:
This government just doesn’t have a clue how to grow the economy. National’s only tools appear to be the knife and the box of matches.
Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, March 8th, 2012 - 43 comments
The $340K contractors hired to show our diplomats the door have told them that, to cope with stress, they could pray, take a bath, or get a cat. What else do you think was on the list?:
Written By: - Date published: 11:24 am, March 7th, 2012 - 278 comments
Today Ports of Auckland sacked 292 employees in the pursuit of the unobtainable by the idiotic. The Ports of Auckland from the start intended to provide a conflict with the intent of sacking all the workers and rehiring them on worse conditions, saving $6m (20%) in wages a year. The amount of money saved was a pittance compared to the underlying problems the port needs to fix.
Written By: - Date published: 9:41 am, March 7th, 2012 - 32 comments
Tax revenue is down, blowing a big hole in all the government’s financial projections. The Nats are in trouble and instead of looking for solutions, they’re looking for excuses.
Written By: - Date published: 8:02 am, March 7th, 2012 - 53 comments
Police numbers are going to be slashed. Diplomats too. And nurses. All up, 2,500 jobs gone so far for $20m saved. And it turns out more than half the government’s new doctors don’t exist. Big public sector strikes may be coming. Every time you read this stuff, remember National’s tax cuts for the rich. The $1.1b for ‘fiscally neutral’ tax cuts last round alone. That’s where the money went.
Written By: - Date published: 11:13 am, March 6th, 2012 - 16 comments
Nationals bungling on the economy continues to damage NZ. Even their misguided state sector job cuts have failed to make significant savings…
Written By: - Date published: 8:10 am, March 5th, 2012 - 70 comments
Anyone saying there are plenty of jobs, people are just to snobby (ie lazy) to take them, has to explain why 90,000 people suddenly got lazy between 2008 and 2009 as 80,000 jobs disappeared.
Written By: - Date published: 9:20 am, March 4th, 2012 - 107 comments
Israel and the US have both been ratcheting up their rhetoric against Iran in the past few months and an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities looks highly likely. Just the other day, Obama told Iran to stop its nuclear programme or else adding, “I don’t bluff”. I really, really hope he’s bluffing. Because Iran’s ready to make an attack on it cost the world big time.
Written By: - Date published: 2:05 pm, March 2nd, 2012 - 25 comments
Bill English: “A government can’t have a lot of impact on the job market. It is what it is.” He’s only half right.
Written By: - Date published: 11:08 am, March 2nd, 2012 - 47 comments
4 days into 4 weeks of strikes, Ports of Auckland is back at the bargaining table. From usually docking 4 ships a day, they’ve docked 2 in 4 – 88% reduction. POAL can’t provide service. Ships are going elsewhere in our over-capitalised port system and might not come back. The Council will be screaming blue murder at the loss of revenue and business disruption. How long till management folds?
Written By: - Date published: 9:50 am, March 2nd, 2012 - 136 comments
So, National wants to re-assure us that, when they sell our assets against our will, they’ll keep 51% and control. But, um, minority shareholders have rights and private boards have to maximise profits ahead of the national interest. If they decide to sell off the dams later they can, and the Nats won’t stop them.
Written By: - Date published: 3:34 pm, March 1st, 2012 - 22 comments
There never was a good business case for holiday highways. Now it’s even worse.
Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, March 1st, 2012 - 133 comments
SkyCity is shrugging its shoulders after 2 adults left 5 children in locked in a van while they gambled in its casino. This is the 25th such incident this year. Yes, these are bad parents. SkyCity profits by problem gamblers acting impulsively and irrationally chasing rewards ignoring the costs – that’s exactly what its customers do when they leave their kids in cars to go gamble.
Written By: - Date published: 1:25 pm, February 29th, 2012 - 32 comments
Written By: - Date published: 1:14 pm, February 29th, 2012 - 120 comments
MUNZ workers and their families explain in their own words how changes being promoted by management of the Auckland City owned Ports of Auckland will affect their families. Watch this video to find out what the Ports of Auckland dispute is really about:
Written By: - Date published: 11:02 am, February 29th, 2012 - 72 comments
Maybe it’s the influence of Bill ‘Guess’ English but National has this strange habit of only doing half the sum. Paula Bennett counts people going off the benefit, but not people going on. John Key looks at normal job creation but ignores normal job destruction. Now, he’s claiming that a mother with a 1-year old is better off working, but he’s not counting the costs of working.
Written By: - Date published: 10:23 am, February 29th, 2012 - 17 comments
There are quarter of a million jobless people. In a typical quarter, about 250,000 people start new jobs. Does that mean we can eliminate joblessness in a quarter? Of course fucken not, but that’s what National is telling you when they rabbit on about ‘10,000 jobs on Trademe’. To get joblessness and benefit numbers down you need a net increase in jobs,not just churn.
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