Industrial roundup: Telecom
Visionstream completed its takeover of the Auckland and Northland patch on Thursday and it’s now become clear that they’ve failed to meet the […]
Economy
workers’ rights
Crime leaps along with unemployment
The Police statistics out today show the crime rate continues to follow the unemployment rate. With unemployment on the rise, so is crime. […]
Open Country shows contempt for the law
The Talleys and National Party linked Open Country Cheese continues to show its contempt for the law as it attempts to break the […]
Support Open Country/Telecom workers
If you’re in Wellington this Friday you might want to pop along to a quiz night fundraiser that Finsec and the NDU are […]
Pay freeze would cause long-term damage
While filling his own pockets with our money, Bill ‘Double Dipton’ English is threatening public sevants with a five-year pay freeze – with […]
Informative journalism
Colin Espiner: “For some reason that I don’t quite understand, unemployment usually continues to rise at the end of recessions, and there’s normally […]
Secret ballots for strikes
Tau Henare has put a private members’ bill in the ballot that would require ballots by union members on strike action to be […]
Open Country now assaulting workers
The Talleys-owned Open Country Cheese dispute took a new turn today after it was revealed that a senior manager, not content with just […]
Farmers Weekly on Open Country
Reader sent in this cartoon from the latest NZ Farmers Weekly. Things have got to be bad for Open Country when even the […]
No pay freeze at the top
It seems the trend of rewarding company bosses with extravagant pay rises regardless of performance isn’t limited to Telecom’s $7 million man, Paul […]
Nat-linked company tries to bully workers
The Open Country Cheese dispute is getting nastier by the day. The workers began their eight-day strike last week. The Talley’s and National […]
Talking union
Eddie’s piece on the importance of joining your union if you want to avoid a pay cut reminded me of another Peter Seeger classic:
Are you worth less this year?
Right now, spurred on by the hypocritical words of Bill English and John Key, employers in the public and private sectors are saying they […]
Open Country polluting our rivers too
The Talleys and National Party-linked Open Country Cheese is currently trying to run its factory without its workers as it attempts to bust […]
Corporate bully-boys step it up a level
The Open Country Cheese dispute is underway. Workers are striking against the bosses’ attempts to casualise their hours and reduce their conditions. They […]
Photos from the Bridgeman lockout
Some photos from the picketline at Bridgeman Concrete in East Tamaki, where workers have been locked out indefinitely unless they submit to a […]
Why the Redundancy Protection Bill matters
Over at Red Alert, Darien Fenton tells the story of just one of the thousands of workers currently being laid off without redundancy […]
Lockout at Bridgeman Concrete
Last week I wrote: We’re seeing a new pattern in work relations emerging. The big employers, emboldened by having their party in power […]
A hollow gesture
Some good comments from CTU president Helen Kelly in the Dom today on the Government’s posturing over MP pay increases. “The Government is […]
Says it all
From the firefighters’ protest against John Key’s pay freeze: Really highlights the double standard in a government that tolerates Bill English’s rorts then […]
No good faith from Nats
Finance Minister Bill English has told doctors, teachers, and other public servants that they will not be getting pay-raises when their collective contracts […]
Which side are you on?
Following on from the workers’ rights/class war theme of the last few days, here’s an old classic:
Redundancy protection – it’s only fair
A coalition of unions, Labour, the Greens, the Maori Party, and community groups has come together to support Darian Fenton’s Redundancy Protection Bill. […]
Battlelines
We’re seeing a new pattern in work relations emerging. The big employers, emboldened by having their party in power and using the recession […]
National-linked dairy company threatens six week lockout
There’s a nasty dispute brewing at Open Country Cheese involving a six week lockout threat, some highly aggressive anti-union PR, calls for the […]
Time for Telecom to come to its senses
Today, 200 Telecom engineers in Auckland and Northland will be fired. Not because there’s no work for them but because Telecom and it’s […]
Telecom solidarity fundraiser
Socialist Aotearoa have organised a Telecom solidarity fundraiser on Friday night. Not for $7m man Paul Reynolds, but for the lines engineers his […]
Backdown from Infratil?
Infratil-run NZ Bus has called off its planned capital strike for tomorrow. The company had been going to prevent bus drivers and other […]
Who is Kate Wilkinson taking aim at?
By John Ryall, SFWU National Secretary While The Standard readers know that the air traffic controllers were the excuse that Kate Wilkinson used […]
Soak the rich
Coming soon to a workplace near you, if Kate Wilkinson gets her way: According to this report by Roll on Friday, a receptionist […]
Shock, Horror – Infratil managers strike for more pay!
Yesterday Infratil got their NZ Bus hand-puppets to announce that they will be going on strike. On Wednesday, if the bus-drivers refuse to […]
Heavy-handed tactics from NZ Bus
Auckland bus drivers have been in negotiations with NZ Bus (which is owned by Infratil) for a 70 cent an hour pay rise. […]
Kate’s pretext falls over
Yesterday, National’s Kate Wilkinson tried to use a dispute over how to apply the new rest breaks law for air traffic controllers as […]
Rest-breaks under attack
In 1908, the miners at Blackball took a famous strike over the right to take rest breaks at work. For most of the […]
Capitalism, it’s not a love-in
I find the Right’s assumption that the bosses are acting in some greater interest fascinating. There’s this unwillingness to believe that the bosses […]
Victory for Zeal320 workers
A good outcome from the Zeal320 dispute. The deal doesn’t quite close the gap between Zeal320 workers and other AirNZ flight attendants but […]