Hypocrite
Watching Key tour Progressive Enterprises today was bad enough but watching him claim to support those workers in the leaders debate was sickening […]
Economy
workers’ rights
Wages still growing strongly
Despite the recession, wages have continued to grow at a record rate and, crucially, faster than inflation. The average hourly rate was up […]
Side-show
I see the media are now comparing the ‘redundancy’ packages on offer with all of the horse race vigour they applied to the […]
Tories’ crack at socialism a poor substitute
National’s redundancy package would effectively continue Working for Families payments for some people who would otherwise lose them after redunancy. Only people who […]
More redundancy protection
It’s good to see Labour turning its focus back onto policy (and particularly the economy) today with its announcement of a “job search […]
Ripping the stuffing out
The CTU has released a second great youtube vid. Well worth a watch and emailing around.
A clear choice on ACC
If you vote National, United Future, or ACT, you will be voting for the ACC system to be privatised. Consequences of this include: […]
Labour’s labour policy good for labourers
Labour has unveiled its work rights policy, and it’s a good one: – minimum wage increases at least at the rate of inflation […]
CTU YouTube vid
Yep, that’s a pusy Roger Douglas zombie eye staring at you. Ew.
Wait, what’s the RSE?
OK, we’ve reported on, given historical context to, and mocked Lockwood Smith’s racist comments about seasonal migrant workers. Now, to the substance of […]
Inequity laffs
Make-work don’t work
The Maori Party wants the dole abolished to be replaced by work schemes. It’s a bad idea but it’s not too far from […]
Labour chickens out on $15 minimum wage
Labour, why do you do this to me? One day you’re announcing neo-Keynesian policies to help us through the coming recession, then you […]
Working our way forward
It was inevitable that the focus of media coverage of Labour’s announements yesterday would be the deposit insurance, it’s a good self-centred middle-class story. […]
Trickle-down
A few thoughts from today’s Agenda: Questioned about why National would introduce another tax rebate, having endlessly criticised Working for Families because of […]
Greens set their standards for coalition partners
The Greens have announced that they will choose their preferred coalition partner based on their commitment to 12 criteria. I’ll just look at […]
Nats break into your piggy-bank
John Key has announced that Kiwisaver would be slashed along with National’s tax cuts for the rich (and they are tax cuts for […]
Will Labour back $15 minimum wage?
The unions want the minimum wage lifted to $15 an hour, two thirds of the average hourly rate, restoring the historic ratio. The […]
CTU on closing the wage gap
The Council of Trade Unions has done a lot of work on why wages are low for many workers in New Zealand and […]
Wage gap decreasing thanks to pro-worker policies
As The Standard first reported on April 1 and Radio New Zealand picked up today, Treasury figures show that the wage gap […]
Nats: Pay cuts for you, tax cuts for the rich
Bill English has put out a press release whingeing about Helen Clark’s promise to lift wages for low-paid school support staff, and fearmongering […]
Lockout lifted
News just in: GO Wellington has lifted the lockout of its 300 bus drivers. The drivers say they are pleased the lockout is […]
GO Wellington lockout: Day One
A reader sent in this photo from the Wellington bus drivers’ picket line at the Kilbirnie bus depot. The workers are said to […]
Go the drivers
Wellington bus drivers are striking this morning and good on them. I was happy to find my own way to work today. The […]
Questioning politicians
We’re keen to help you get active this election campaign. That’s why we’ve launched Campaign Hub 2008 and its Facebook group to give […]
Key on scrapping four weeks annual leave
Thanks to the wonders of Scoopit I’ve just come across this old TVNZ footage of John Key’s first day as National’s finance spokesman. […]
Greens good for workers
Work rights should be a big issue this election. National is proposing to strip workers of their rights to undermine wage increases. The […]
Chutzpah
When the EPMU released its investigation notes on Shawn Tan it was obvious that some right-wing bloggers would seize on the fact that […]
Disappointing
I just have to say, it’s incredibly disappointing that a simple prank, a google bomb, gets three newspaper articles and coverage on TV3 […]
The hypocrisy of the Right
Today, we have National’s Judith Collins attacking the Government because the number of Kiwis on the unemployment benefit rose from 17,710 to 20,465 […]
National bleats about wages, still has no solutions
The National Party are once again trying to make political capital over the Trans-Tasman wage gap, even though they created it in the […]
Market failure
An article on Stuff today shows “Social injustice is killing people on a grand scale”. It’s based on research by Dr. Jamie Pearce […]
Stark
John Key’s attempt to ride on Obama’s coattails has been rightly ridiculed in the New Zealand press, but the differences go much deeper […]
Right to strike
Hundreds of Australian journalists walked off the job yesterday in protest at Fairfax’s 550 planned job cuts. Here in NZ journos employed by […]
Social Report shows Kiwis better off
MSD released its Social Report today, an annual publication that collates a wide variety of standard of living measures, and produces this awesome graph. […]
Workers demand decent work rights policies
6000 workers turned out in Manukau yesterday for the EPMU’s Wages Drive rally. With 25 events nation-wide over this month, which have attracted […]