Written By: - Date published: 8:15 am, October 21st, 2010 - 516 comments
It looked like Actors Equity and Peter Jackson had come to an agreement.
They’d even written a joint statement to announce the boycott was off.
So why has the whole thing blown up?
Written By: - Date published: 12:51 pm, October 20th, 2010 - 115 comments
Thousands of workers are now leaving their work places to attend one of the 27 protests taking place today from Kaiatia to the Bluff against National’s draconian anti-worker policies. This one could be big. This is the day that Kiwi workers stand up and say that they have had enough of this government attacking our wages and work conditions. Update: 5-6 thousand at Parliament.
Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, October 20th, 2010 - 32 comments
Trying to get my head around the economic arguments going on. Hearing contradictory things. Who’s telling the truth? ls Labour’s new overseas investment policy Stalinism that will ruin the economy, as Key claimed on Monday and Tuesday? Or is the same as the existing law, as Key claimed on Monday and Tuesday?
Written By: - Date published: 7:02 am, October 20th, 2010 - 44 comments
National have been running some fine lines of bullshit lately. Keith Ng’s recent post at Public Address calls them out on two of them. The first, National is trying to claim credit for low inflation. The Second, National is trying to claim that recent wage increases have been better than the previous 9 years. Keith takes the bullshit apart – dirty work, but someone has to do it.
Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, October 19th, 2010 - 87 comments
For some reason, the Nats hate public education. Even an elitist fool should be able to see that a well-educated workforce is valuable and public education is the cheapest way to achieve it. Yet National is attacking education at every level. The latest ‘offer’ to the secondary teachers would see them take 2 years of after-inflation pay cuts.
Written By: - Date published: 6:45 am, October 19th, 2010 - 12 comments
Unemployment is up, wages are down. But the Nats want to put the boot into workers to keep costs down for their rich mates. They’re trying to take away workers’ rights, remove protections, cut pay, reduce holidays and diminish access to sick leave. Tomorrow is the national day of action when we fight back.
Written By: - Date published: 11:00 am, October 18th, 2010 - 35 comments
Yesterday, former National media trainer Paul Holmes and former National Party President Michelle Boag attempted an extraordinary hatchet job on Phil Goff on Q+A. No analysis of the real policy divide that Goff and Labour with National carved out at the national conference, just attack – why? The economy, policy, Key’s fading brand, and the polls.
Written By: - Date published: 6:14 am, October 15th, 2010 - 20 comments
The government is refusing to step up to save IHC providers that are insolvent due to a recent court case that resulted in IHC carers being awarded hundreds of millions in back wages. The government is washing its hands, even though it is the primary funder of the services. Will the Nats let IHC collapse or will they use this to bring in their corporate mates?
Written By: - Date published: 9:15 am, October 13th, 2010 - 17 comments
It was a year ago that Paula Bennett first declared victory over rising unemployment. Since then, John Key has been working his economic strategy hard: high-fiving every schoolgirl he can find, playing with spiders, announcing and re-annoucing literally tens of kilometres of cycleway, smiling and waving till it hurts. But dole numbers are rising.
Written By: - Date published: 1:01 pm, October 7th, 2010 - 36 comments
The just released Income Survey is more evidence of the Key Government’s failure to deliver for working Kiwis. After inflation, this is the third successive year in which the median income of New Zealanders has fallen. It’s now nearly 5% lower than when National came to power. This year alone, the median income fell 3.5%.
Written By: - Date published: 11:30 pm, October 6th, 2010 - 31 comments
Seems these days that when people get in to financial strife, the Government is all too happy to offer a helping hand loaded down with wadges of cash. Sometimes…
And then sometimes something altogether more short and sharp is offered. Depending…
Written By: - Date published: 9:26 pm, October 4th, 2010 - 62 comments
Actors Equity have the Aussie actors’ minimum standards up on their site and they look pretty minimal.
So what’s all the fuss about and why is John Key suddenly interested in getting involved in an industrial dispute?
After all he’s previously claimed it’s “not appropriate” for the government to intervene in other disputes.
Written By: - Date published: 8:24 am, October 3rd, 2010 - 17 comments
Wondering who Actors’ Equity are and what they do? Well here’s a video from AE explaining just that. Actors’ Equity also have a good website that lays out their position in Peter Jackson’s Das Hobbitski fiasco. It’s been funny watching the msm contort itself while struggling with its rarely conflicting predilections for both celebrities and […]
Written By: - Date published: 7:10 am, October 3rd, 2010 - 28 comments
One of these things is not like the other, One of these things is not quite the same. Can you guess which one is not like the other, Can you tell me before I finish the game?
Written By: - Date published: 11:45 am, October 2nd, 2010 - 32 comments
The Hobbit dispute is being run to a very familiar playbook.
Let’s have a look at the employers’ tactics and what the union can do to counter them.
Written By: - Date published: 2:28 pm, October 1st, 2010 - 31 comments
As you sit there reading this, think about how industrial action is growing across the country – Secondary teachers, Junior Doctors, Radiographers, State Servants, Actors. There is a lot more to come as National and business try to force wages down. Do you want to wait for them to come for you?
Written By: - Date published: 1:11 pm, October 1st, 2010 - 46 comments
Peter Jackson’s in the paper today whining about being denied entry to a union meeting.
There’s a really simple reason for that – union meetings are for union members, not for employers.
Written By: - Date published: 12:21 pm, September 30th, 2010 - 23 comments
John Key tells a businesswoman he “would love to see wages drop“. National makes sub-inflation minimum wage increase. National makes no effort to bring unemployment back down. Unemployment chokes wage rises. National attacks unions, the biggest driver of wage rises. Wage gap with Australia widens National opposes pay increases for teachers, medical techs, doctors,… National […]
Written By: - Date published: 8:48 am, September 30th, 2010 - 112 comments
Arts Minister Chris Finlayson has backed the Hobbit producers’ refusal to negotiate with Kiwi workers.
He’s citing a Crown Law opinion that backs Jackson’s claim he can’t negotiate with workers collectively.
But he’s deliberately asked a very narrow question to get the answer he wants – an answer he’s using to back foreign big business over the rights of Kiwi workers.
Written By: - Date published: 6:45 am, September 30th, 2010 - 66 comments
Despite Bill English’s firm statement that “unemployment has peaked”, jobs are still being lost in large numbers. 1500 council workers in Auckland. 150 mushroom workers in Morrinsville. 500 workers whose quake hit employers are closing down in Christchurch. From John Key’s Hawaiian beach chair these worries must seem very far away.
Written By: - Date published: 12:26 pm, September 29th, 2010 - 36 comments
I thought Peter Jackson was an ordinary guy made good who hadn’t let success make him an elitist prick. I was wrong. New Zealand taxpayers contributed hundreds of millions to his <em>Lord of the Rings</em> trilogy and what thanks do we get? Threats of capital flight, which will probably soon be followed by demands for taxpayer subsidies.
Written By: - Date published: 7:59 am, September 29th, 2010 - 18 comments
Peter Jackson and others film industry employers are claiming they can’t employ their workers as employees.
That claim is simply untrue.
So what’s the real reason for their reluctance to employee people on proper agreements?
Written By: - Date published: 12:28 pm, September 28th, 2010 - 52 comments
While the cat’s away the mice will play. And while the clown’s sunning himself in Hawaii the ideologues in his Cabinet will launch vitriolic attacks on public service workers. As teachers are forced to endure another day of the country’s most powerful figures attack them, lets consider the consequences of undermining vital public services.
Written By: - Date published: 7:40 am, September 28th, 2010 - 12 comments
While the Anglo – Saxon or English speaking left seems unable to shake a deep malaise that began afflicting it some thirty years ago, the left in the Spanish speaking world is making some remarkable strides forward.
Written By: - Date published: 8:19 pm, September 27th, 2010 - 53 comments
The MEAA has responded to Peter Jacksons Tirade.
And it looks like he’s not been very straight-up about how the situation got to this.
Written By: - Date published: 10:39 am, September 27th, 2010 - 154 comments
The voluntary student union membership bill is based on a false premise, and a reflexive tory hatred for the word “union”. I have a suggestion for students…
Written By: - Date published: 7:51 am, September 27th, 2010 - 99 comments
Film workers in New Zealand have been exploited for years
Now their union is standing up for them.
And Sir Peter Jackson is throwing a tantrum about it.
Written By: - Date published: 11:10 am, September 20th, 2010 - 84 comments
A UMR poll just out asked 750 Kiwis if workers should have the right to appeal if they think they are unfairly dismissed within the first 90 days of employment. 80% said yes. That’s a damning rejection of National’s Fire at Will law, which the government wants to extend to every new worker. Will Key and Co listen? Fat chance.
Written By: - Date published: 9:59 am, September 20th, 2010 - 31 comments
John Key says he supports the teachers and junior doctors’ claims for a pay rise ‘but we simply don’t have the money’. Yet Key who is borrowing half a billion dollars this year for tax cuts for the wealthiest 9%. It isn’t a question of what the government can afford. It’s who matters to National – the rich do, teachers and doctors don’t.
Written By: - Date published: 11:41 pm, September 17th, 2010 - 19 comments
It’s been a very big week this week, so I thought I’d do a round-up, just so we don’t forget some of the ‘lesser’ lights that may have been big news had we not had so much to go on…
Written By: - Date published: 1:59 pm, September 15th, 2010 - 19 comments
In the Today in Politics column in the DomPost there’s a snippy little piece about the Fairness at Work submissions. The CTU reckons around 6000 people have made submssions against the Bill. A lot of these were made via its website. Not bad going considering the government gave people just over three weeks to have their voice heard. Anyway, the chair of […]
Recent Comments