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The Port of Auckland and its National Party allies would have you believe that the stevedores are monsters for not be willing to accept a 20% pay cut so that POA can try to undercut Port of Tauranga (where's the 'national interest' in that, again?).…
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As usual, it's reduced service over the summer break, unless anything big happens. We hope you'll get a good break with those dear to you, and that we'll have some decent weather to enjoy. And if you still need your politics fix... Open mike is…
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See Landcorp planning to pay $18m a year rent to a government-linked Chinese firm to run the Crafar farms. So New Zealand is in the enviable position of having to pay rent to foreign owners to farm our own land. Key promised we wouldn't be…
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As usual, it's reduced service over the summer break, unless anything big happens. We hope you'll get a good break with those dear to you, and that we'll have some decent weather to enjoy. And if you still need your politics fix... Open mike is…
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Weekend social is for non political chat. What's on for the weekend, gigs, film or book reviews, sports, or whatever. No politics, no aggro, why can't we all just get along?
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This morning my iPad was drained of power because I'd left a charger in a hotel in Dunedin at New Years so didn't have one by the bed*. So for the first time in a month I reached into the vast numbers of books that…
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There's an excellent article on energybulletin.net that you should read. Written by ecological economist Brian Davey, he explains how while we need to fix the problems of peak oil and climate change, we're not going to get anywhere until we deal with the psychopathic elite…
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The Productivity Commission reports that freight costs are 25% higher here than in Australia and freight costs as a % of cargo value has risen in recent years. Their solution? Make the public and port workers poorer by privatisation and casualisation. Of course, those are…
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A leaked Ports of Auckland strategy document shows their goal is to reduce the stevedores' wages by 20%. They were planning to manufacture a crisis even before the stevedores' collective expired. They've been rumbled breaking the law by not bargaining in good faith. Their political…
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As usual, it's reduced service over the summer break, unless anything big happens. We hope you'll get a good break with those dear to you, and that we'll have some decent weather to enjoy. And if you still need your politics fix... Open mike is…
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National high flyer Jami-Lee Ross, Ports of Auckland's chief shill, and Fran O'Sullivan all joined the fray over the port dispute yesterday. How does their line that the workers are overpaid marry with the Port's claim that they're offering pay rises? Does the Port project…
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Eorkmployment confidence has plunged to its lowest level in 2 years, according to the latest Westpac survey. A bosses' shill says workers are wrong to be worried about their jobs. Unfortunately, the bosses have been promising us that everything's going to be OK for four…
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I see David Farrar has joined the chorus of overpaid righties complaining about how much wharfies are paid in Auckland. Now, apart from the fact he's spouting the same dodgy figures that have already been discredited here, I'm interested in why the f**k he and…
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As usual, it's reduced service over the summer break, unless anything big happens. We hope you'll get a good break with those dear to you, and that we'll have some decent weather to enjoy. And if you still need your politics fix... Open mike is…
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Scott at Imperator Fish has kindly given us permission to syndicate posts from his blog – the original of this post is here All Blacks captain Richie McCaw was given the supreme award at the Steinlager New Zealand Literature Awards last night. McCaw’s epic book, Richie, won the main…
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Is the title of the independent High Pay Commission's report set up to look at "the reasons for the gap between high and low pay in the UK and why this matters." It is very good and worth a read. HPC_final_report_WEB It has relevance here…
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Helen Kelly on Facebook says (I've reformatted the text into paragraphs) :- The Port has finally provided some salary figures for the workers at the port and it is an interesting change of position. The first position was that Port workers earn an average of…
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My challenge (as part of my new life as expert communications/campaign/recruitment consultant to the stars) over the next 6 weeks is to encourage 1000 union members to bring their family into the union family for just $1 a week. That's 1000 people who are already…
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Generating a false crisis to justify their ideological policies is a classic rightwing tactic. Key gravely pronounces the system is 'broken' and their policy is the solution. Education has been victim to this bullshit. But OECD stats show that we have the best value for…
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Emerson from The Herald on privatisation:
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They say that the nice thing about Cameron Slater is he'll believe whatever he's paid to believe. Yesterday, I asked whether Slater is being paid to run dirt stories for Ports of Auckland. He didn't deny it. So what is the Port's propagandist up to?…
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As usual, it's reduced service over the summer break, unless anything big happens. We hope you'll get a good break with those dear to you, and that we'll have some decent weather to enjoy. And if you still need your politics fix... Open mike is…
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Other day, Curran asked what they should do with Red Alert. Now, Mallard's again using it, in conjunction with Pagani on his blog, to try to do an end run around his own party to promote benefit 'reform'. Leaving aside the fact it's the employment…
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Since my post yesterday, Ports of Auckland has upped the ante threatening to sack all its workers and contract out (to quick and loud cheers from the National-aligned blogs they are working with - Cameron Slater's rate is $10,000 for an operation like this). What…
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As usual, it's reduced service over the summer break, unless anything big happens. We hope you'll get a good break with those dear to you, and that we'll have some decent weather to enjoy. And if you still need your politics fix... Open mike is…
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The Right is up to its old tricks over the Ports of Auckland. It's the usual pattern: make up some bullshit about how the workers are spoiled and unreasonable, cry that the sky will fall if the company doesn't get its way, and (this is…
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Here we go - the DomPost offers advice to Shearer on welfare policy, based on a Guardian article by Liam Byrne, British Labour shadow welfare spokesperson. The editorial is a disguised invitation to good old beneficiary-bashing, using the frame of welfare dependency. Trevor Mallard, New…
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Here's a few guesses about what'll happen in the year ahead in politics. Shearer will cement his leadership by turning his back on the old guard who put him there. The Greens will hold on to their gains. National will go hell for leather. Mana…
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As usual, it's reduced service over the summer break, unless anything big happens. We hope you'll get a good break with those dear to you, and that we'll have some decent weather to enjoy. And if you still need your politics fix... Open mike is…