“You were never going to get rich as a bus driver but you could pay the mortgage or rent, afford a meal out now and then, and make sure your kids had what they needed to do well — hopefully to do better than you.
Competitive contracting has taken that away”
Shane Jones has muddied a perfectly good job creation policy by talking about work for the dole.
Helen Kelly blogged four years ago why the deal that allowed Peter Whittall to walk free following the Pike River disaster was unjust and flawed. Yesterday the Supreme Court agreed.
National is trying to spin that Labour has adopted its position on re-entry of the Pike River mine. But the Pike River families are having nothing of this.
“two multinational companies are demanding the removal of long-standing terms and conditions in the collective agreement.”
Idiot/Savant at No Right Turn looks at the Paid Parental Leave Bill and how National are trying to wreck it.
Mining, big data, social investment, paid parental leave, and pēpi in the House. The new government’s not mucking around remedying some of the previous government’s plunder and pillage policies.
Some aspects of the TPP no-one’s mentioning.
Idiot/savant writes about Labour’s legislation to extend paid parental leave.
“The government is throwing out pay equity legislation introduced by National, saying it makes it harder for people to make a claim for fair wages.”
Labour has indicated that as a priority it wishes to repeal the Hobbit law, a clumsy attempt in breach of International Law to prevent workers in the film industry from organising collectively and to divert attention from the fact that the National Government had been played by Warner Brothers.
Julie Anne Genter as the new Minister for Women is likely to revisit a private members bill that would advance pay equity in NZ.
Extra sweet this year.
Long time Unionist and Labour supporter Don Presland died last week. Family friend Ad writes about Don’s decades of standing up for workers’ rights and in celebration of the life of a really good man.
Helen Kelly died a year ago today. She is missed.
Dunedin hosts a celebratory graduation ceremony for discarded labour.
National’s one and only strategy this election was lying about Labour, specifically Labour’s budget and their tax policy. The $11.7bn hole lie just made the Nats look stupid, but the evidence suggests that the tax lie did real damage. Why are we so angry about tax and so apathetic about the much more important issue of low pay?
SaveMart employees were made to sort bales of filthy clothing dumped in Child Cancer charity bins without safety gloves. Unionized workers at New Lynn were sacked for contacting their union about it. Why did it require so much public pressure to get them reinstated? Why are our laws so inadequete?
First Union members working at Save Mart were given notice yesterday after complaints this week were made about health and safety conditions and interviews showing a culture of punishment and degradation.
Trolley buses make sense for the environment and for people who drive them. But in just a couple of month’s time the Greater Wellington Regional will start an $11m project to dismantle the trolley bus system. Council Tramways Union Vice President Chris Morley writes about why this is a huge mistake.
They ran away from equal pay.
Expect plenty of Nat boasting on “the economy” in the election campaign. They’ll be desperate to hide the inconvenient fact that ordinary workers are going backwards.
A week of action to support all Kiwis getting a fair go at work.
CTU President Richard Wagstaff writes on today’s actions about his opposition to the government attempt to dismember the historic decision in the Court of Appeal for pay equity by Kristine Bartlett and E tū. National has distorted the recommendations of the Joint Working Group to restrict or even eliminate equal pay for equal work.
Bruce Munro’s excellent piece in the ODT, looks in to the truth behind the Nats’ job numbers: “It does not take much digging in Statistics New Zealand’s latest Household Labour Force Survey to uncover a growing world of low-paid work, insufficient working hours, financial struggles and unfulfilled lives”.
The Nats have U-turned on their immigration restrictions. It must come with better protection for migrant workers. The way we exploit them in NZ is shameful.
Today thousands of IRD workers face the prospect of losing their jobs while two MOT workers who lost their jobs for whistle blowing are vindicated. Who would be a public servant?
Is how the media would report the plan – to have immigrants work here for 2 years unpaid – if it was a Labour Party policy. (Lookin’ at you Newshub)
Radio New Zealand is reporting that the State Services Commission will report today that it believes that the convicted fraudster Joanne Harrison forced whistleblowers out of the Transport Ministry in 2015. Updated with link to formal announcement.
More excellent reporting from Newsroom: “Long overdue pay rate increases affecting 55,000 New Zealand care and support workers kick in on July 1. But the Government’s failure to fully fund the changes is threatening to derail service providers”
In shocking news, it turns out that employers don’t like Labour’s new employment relations package. They (and the usual suspects) are running lines about a return to the 1970s. A time when workers’ share of the wealth was higher, poverty was lower, inequality was lower, and workers had more rights. Sounds awful.
Labour: “After nine years of National, working people’s share of the economy is falling. Less than 40 per cent of economic growth under National has gone into working people’s wages. If working people’s slice of the economy hadn’t shrunk under National, workers’ pay packets would have been $23 billion larger.”
Greater Wellington regional Council has tendered their bus service without protecting drivers’ terms and conditions. That’s going to cost drivers and average of $200 per week. Danny Scotford sent out this email asking people in Wellington to protest at the councils’ next meeting.
Tonight Newshub had new footage from deep inside Pike River mine. It showed no fire damage.
The Wellington Regional Council has contracted its bus services but not protected its drivers’ incomes. They stand to lose an average of $200 a week.
And Wellington risks losing the great public transport system it is so proud of.
Those arguing for unrestricted immigration are – wittingly or unwittingly – fueling higher levels of exploitation in NZ.
