Written By: - Date published: 10:11 am, November 23rd, 2009 - 40 comments
Over the last week or so, I’ve heard John Key, Bill English, and Paula Bennett all make self-congratulatory references to the number of people receiving the unemployment benefit decreasing in October. That sounded weird to me. No-one seriously thinks unemployment has stopped increasing. MSD doesn’t regularly release the month by month data but I eventually managed […]
Written By: - Date published: 12:57 pm, November 18th, 2009 - 6 comments
As Irish has already noted, Fran O’Sullivan has savaged John Key’s record on employment and said that Paula Bennett is “too busy puffing her own achievements to pay much heed” to warnings on the dire long term-effects of high youth unemployment. What caught my eye was her quote from Key at the start. President Obama is looking for ways […]
Written By: - Date published: 12:30 pm, November 17th, 2009 - 9 comments
The continuing wave of lockouts continues to go unremarked by the government, the opposition and the media. Over the past few months there has hardly been a week, when one, or even two, and sometimes even three lockouts have been going on around the country. This week has been no different; The continuing lockout of […]
Written By: - Date published: 9:29 am, November 17th, 2009 - 9 comments
We’ve talked a lot about the negative effects of unemployment on the unemployed and their communities (depression, crime, family breakup, poor health, poor educational outcomes for children etc) but there’s another group that benefits from fewer people being on benefits – people with jobs. Check out the graph. At the end of the 1990s, there […]
Written By: - Date published: 8:05 am, November 12th, 2009 - 42 comments
The Labour Cost Index tells us that most workers this year failed to get pay rises to match inflation in the past year. 52% got no increase. 4% got less than inflation (2%, represented by the green line on the graph). 1% even got pay cuts. That’s a dramatic change on a year ago. Well, so […]
Written By: - Date published: 1:30 pm, November 9th, 2009 - 36 comments
I’ve never quite understood why David Farrar, who is after all paid to do statistical work, insists on performing transparent statistical tricks on his blog. Yesterday, he did a post with figures on the number of 15-19 year olds with jobs. He argued that it showed removing the youth rate and giving everyone the same […]
Written By: - Date published: 8:51 am, November 9th, 2009 - 9 comments
Like here in New Zealand, unemployment continues to climb in America. And one of the results is soaring productivity. (sources: 1,2) But wait, isn’t higher productivity good? In normal circumstances, yes, when it comes about from capital deepening (ie businesses investing in equipment rather than taking profits) or a more educated workforce. But productivity will […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:25 am, November 8th, 2009 - 32 comments
Matt McCarten’s Herald column this week is a call for every working New Zealander to go and see Michael Moore’s Capitalism: A Love Story. I haven’t managed to catch it yet, but judging by McCarten’s review Moore’s latest will be a must-see: Some of the points he raises – such as workers having representation on […]
Written By: - Date published: 12:40 pm, November 5th, 2009 - 14 comments
The number of employed people fell from 2,170,000 to 2,154,000 in the three months to September*. There are 54,000 fewer people in jobs than December last year. 16,000 jobs were lost in three months – 240 per work day. Unemployment rose another 0.5% to 6.5%, the first time it has been that high since National […]
Written By: - Date published: 6:27 pm, October 31st, 2009 - 24 comments
The Unite Halloween-themed $15 minimum wage march went well yesterday. Looks like there were a fair number of people there. Pity there’s no single good shot of the whole crowd (hint for protest photographers) but John Darroch managed to get some pretty cool snaps. Here are a few:
Written By: - Date published: 2:35 pm, October 31st, 2009 - 8 comments
A range of interesting political/economic comment today in the Herald: Fran O’Sullivan joins the left-wing and groups like Federated Farmers in calling on the Key Government to sort out monetary policy. At the moment, the Reserve Bank is tasked solely with controlling inflation with interest rates as its only real tool, while the exchange is […]
Written By: - Date published: 4:00 pm, October 30th, 2009 - 24 comments
If you watched the media coverage of last week’s Council of Trade Unions conference you’ll have walked away thinking it was about John Key telling teachers to take a pay cut and some woman threatening to throw a shoe at him. Entirely missed was the launch of the CTU’s Alternative Economic Strategy. That’s a pity, […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:36 am, October 30th, 2009 - 15 comments
The Campaign for a Living Wage will be taking to the streets of Auckland’s CBD tonight to demand a minimum wage of 15 dollars an hour and an end to poverty wages. The theme is Halloween trick or treat. If you want, you can dress up as: (a) a Zombie worker who has awoken from […]
Written By: - Date published: 1:00 pm, October 29th, 2009 - 4 comments
The campaign for a $15 an hour minimum wage is gathering pace. Initially, Unite kind of set out on their own on this one but I understand they’ve got other unions on boards now. They need a bit over 300,000 signatures to force the government to hold a referendum. They’ve got until May 7, just […]
Written By: - Date published: 1:00 pm, October 28th, 2009 - 19 comments
Over at Kiwiblog, David Farrar is doing his usual apologetics for National by trying to spin its removal of guaranteed rest and meal breaks. It’s the usual mix of falsehoods and recycled spin, but one comment stuck out in particular: And you know, despite no statutory requirement, I don’t know of any great plethora of […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:30 am, October 28th, 2009 - 3 comments
The reprieve from the rain may have been the only thing worth celebrating this Labour Day. Probably pissed that there isn’t a holiday celebrating big business, Labour Minister Kate Wilkinson chose to shift the focus away from celebrating workers’ rights to removing them. While previously signalled,yesterday’s introduction of legislation striping workers of minimum entitlements to […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:39 am, October 28th, 2009 - 3 comments
You’ll have seen in the paper that National is going to legislate, most likely under urgency, to let employers deny workers the right to take smoko and lunch breaks. It’s a pretty basic work right, and a Kiwi tradition going right back to Blackball. To remove it just strikes me as petty and mean. There’s […]
Written By: - Date published: 12:01 am, October 26th, 2009 - 3 comments
Credit where it’s due.
Written By: - Date published: 2:11 pm, October 25th, 2009 - 31 comments
Australia’s Federal Industry Minister Kim Carr has criticized Bridgestone’s closure of its Australian and New Zealand operations and the 1000 redundancies it’ll bring. Carr is looking at ways to alleviate some of the unemployment problems for the laid-off aussie workers but criticizes Bridgestone for pulling out (and no doubt relocating to countries where workers get […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, October 23rd, 2009 - 5 comments
Saw this article on Stuff yesterday: Employers and employees have dramatically different opinions of why workers remain in their jobs, says research released on Tuesday showing US companies may struggle to retain employees in an improved job market. Employees cite benefits, financial compensation, and their career growth and earnings potential as the top three reasons […]
Written By: - Date published: 2:30 pm, October 22nd, 2009 - 4 comments
There’s been a fair bit of coverage of John Key’s use of the CTU conference to divide and rule over wages and announce he’ll be making it even easier for employers to sack people without going through the proper process, but it was this statement that really caught my attention: … the National Party’s election […]
Written By: - Date published: 8:28 am, October 22nd, 2009 - 20 comments
John Key says that if school support staff want pay-rises then teachers should sacrifice the ones they bargained for. Tell him to get stuffed. I don’t see him and his rich mates handing back the hundreds of dollars a week each in tax-cuts that National gave. I don’t see Key or his buddies Mark Weldon and Rob Fyfe […]
Written By: - Date published: 2:00 pm, October 21st, 2009 - 16 comments
Next Monday, you have a paid day off. Do you know why? Because workers organised themselves into unions and fought for better pay and conditions, starting with an 8-hour day. Labour Day is both a product of those achievements and a chance to celebrate them. The TEU has set up a Labour Day website to remind […]
Written By: - Date published: 5:00 pm, October 16th, 2009 - 10 comments
Hundreds of hospitals workers from all over the country took protest action against National’s wage freeze today. Here’s a photo from the picket line: The workers passed a resolution calling for a 24 hour mass protest stoppage in November involving as many public sector workers as possible. With Parliamentary Services and the Ministry of Justice […]
Written By: - Date published: 9:21 am, October 15th, 2009 - 9 comments
Non-political staff Parliamentary Service are in industrial action. They want to keep their redundancy provisions that were bargained for years ago and get pay into the collective. Right now HR decides their wages. They’re meant use this performance pay system but now they’re saying there’s no money and no cost of living adjustments. The pay […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:45 am, October 14th, 2009 - 2 comments
Farrar’s published what he calls an ‘internal union email’ about the PSA and the SFWU’s decision not to amalgamate. Considering it was sent out to 70,000 people more than a week ago I wouldn’t get too excited. The amalgamation talks always struck me as an odd idea. The organising cultures and the membership profiles of […]
Written By: - Date published: 8:06 pm, October 13th, 2009 - 3 comments
The front page leads on Herald and Stuff report: NZ Bus will lift its lockout notice and resume services on Thursday morning “as a gesture of good will”, if the unions stop strike action and agree to reach a settlement, the company says. I do despair about our media sometimes. This is not a new offer. […]
Written By: - Date published: 1:20 pm, October 12th, 2009 - 2 comments
So, in the week to October 2, 1950 people signed up to the dole and 2040 went off it. Time to celebrate according to Paula Bennett – unemployment’s going down! But one thing we know about Bennett is she doesn’t have a good grasp of detail – in fact, she has to have everything reduced […]
Written By: - Date published: 12:53 pm, October 12th, 2009 - 35 comments
ARC chairman Mike Lee has delivered a blunt ultimatum to NZ Bus as its lockout of drivers reaches day five. “We have had enough. Auckland will not be held to ransom. If you can’t deliver the services that the people of Auckland rely on, then we will have to find someone else who can… “NZ […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:00 pm, October 8th, 2009 - 14 comments
The Bridgeman Concrete workers locked out for nine days hardened their picket last week. Two concrete trucks couldn’t leave the depo, costing the company $3,000 in ruined concrete. The company responded by caving in, and lifted the lock out. As well as lifting their lockout Bridgeman also conceded to workers’ demands for a fairer redundancy agreement that […]
Written By: - Date published: 4:25 pm, October 8th, 2009 - 18 comments
Some photos from the Auckland bus driver lockout. The drivers showed up to the depots today to demonstrate they were willing to work, while the NZ Bus/Infratil managers stared at them from behind locked gates. These are from the picket line at the Mt Roskill depot: No Right Turn reports there will be a picket […]
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