Go Bus Lockout; Hypocrites Ngai Tahu and Tainui Screw Workers
Ngai Tahu and Tainui remind us that they like exploiting working people as much as the next capitalist. They’ve locked out their Waikato bus drivers for asking to be paid the Living Wage.
living wage
Arses and Elbows
Deserving workers and undeserving workers in the public service.
updated
Government announces living wage to be paid to all core public servants
The Government has announced that all employees in the core public service will be paid a living wage from September 1, 2018.
Industrial action is one way to increase wages
The National Party has recently been on the Government’s case for increasing strikes under their watch. But is that really a fair criticism, and does it jive well with the other things the Opposition has been claiming to value?
Living wage rises to $20.20 an hour
The living wage rises, and an odd argument for abolishing the minimum wage.
Spark – kudos
Our wages are too low generally, and this is one of the main economic challenges that we face. A few more employers committing to paying a living wage would be a good place to start.
This is why we need a living wage
It is tragic that a family working 80 hours a week cannot make ends meet.
The minimum wage is not a living wage
Credit where it’s due for an increase in the minimum wage – but the gap between that and a living wage keeps growing…
Hickey on the living wage
Excellent piece by Bernard Hickey in The Herald this morning.
Waldegrave responds to ‘Living Wage’ critique
Charles Waldegrave has slammed Brian Scott’s critique of the method used to calculate the Living Wage in New Zealand. He shows Scott’s critique, and that of the Treasury, lack an informed understanding of the definition of a living wage and confuse market wage rates and welfare transfers. The living wage level was set at $18.40 per hour in February 2013. Scott’s paper has been given prominence on Kiwiblog 3 January 2014
A Tale of Two Cities
It was the best of times in Wellington today. Council workers will get a living wage, and parking wardens will become council employees so they will get decent pay also. It was the worst of times in Auckland as the right-wing Scrooges having failed to remove Mayor Len Brown took it out on their workers by overturning his call for a living wage for Council staff.
Inequality meeting plus…
Max Rashbrooke talking about his book Inequality: a New Zealand Crisis and more on Monday 18 November, 5.30pm @ Auckland Trades Hall, 147 Great North Rd, Grey Lynn
Len Brown will today propose a living wage for Auckland Council employees
Len Brown will today propose to Council that it funds a living wage for all Council and CCO employees. It is intended that this is funded through savings, particularly with high level wages, and efficiencies and will be brought in over three years if supported by the Council.
Cunliffe stands strong for fair pay and your work rights
David Cunliffe showed that he wasn’t just pandering for votes in the leadership race by reaffirming and strengthening his commitment to work rights at the CTU conference yesterday. When David is PM the minimum wage will rise to $15 an hour, the public service will set an example by paying the living wage, and the Nats’ attacks on rights will be reversed – no more Fire at Will, no more youth rates.
The cleaner & the ugly face of National
Imagine that your job was to clean 130 toilets every day. Imagine the grinding unpleasantness of it. Imagine the horrors some disgusting person would regularly leave for you to deal with. Imagine you do that for just above the minimum wage, barely enough to support your family, far from enough to live a real life. And imagine seeing one of the people whose shit you clean sneer at you.
It’s about jobs … and social security?
Cunliffe & Robertson stress the need to improve employment laws, jobs, wages, the economy, workers’ rights. Cunliffe invokes Savage-like social security & the need to end the Nats beneficiary bashing. Wider community pressure is needed for there to be real political change away from the destructive neoliberal scam.
Statistic of the Day
Percent of New Zealanders with not enough money to make ends meet: 15
Percent unemployed: 6.4
Fairness at work and a living wage
The Government has been warned that the Employment Relations Amendment Bill is likely to breach ILO conventions. Bridges has responded by saying that the breaches “may not be significant”. Why is it that the Government gets all hard core when dealing with beneficiaries legal obligations but is so casual when it deals with its own obligations?
Warehouse adopts living wage
The Warehouse has adopted a policy of paying a living wage of $18.50-$20 an hour for longer-term employees. It’s a really positive move and The Warehouse is to be congratulated. It’ll cost about $2.5m a year, or 5% of profits. As we’ve seen in the NZ Power debate, it’s a rare thing for major companies to look beyond their balancesheets to the community they exist within. Now, who’s next?
Good employer
Bravo to TONZU, the first employers to sign up for the living wage for all its workers.
Working for a Living
The thing I like about the Living Wage campaign is the branding represents strongly both the problem and the solution. The Prime Minister fell into its trap when he said that the Living Wage was not a priority for his Government. The statement says it all really. The Government don’t want you to work for a living, they just want you to work.
Irony overload as English calls some bosses greedy
Irony meters everywhere pegged their meters as Bill English accused some bosses of being “greedy”, and not paying their staff enough. Hey Double Dipton – those greedy bosses? – they’re just following your example…
A living wage: living with dignity edition
The concept of a living wage is one that just makes good sense to me. A wage should be enough to live on, right? Because it’s a wage? Because what’s the point if it doesn’t?
Advocacy activism in precarious times
In these troubling times, it was uplifting to see the flax-roots, practical and collaborative action at the Onehunga Recession Busting rally for beneficiaries today. Volunteers in front of the WINZ office in Onehunga Mall, are giving support and assistance to those most in need.
Living Wage event
The Living Wage campaign is holding an event in Wellington on Thursday.
A living wage
The Service and Food Workers Union is launching a campaign for a living wage at 12 o’clock today.
[Update: Campaign site]
Vision part 2: a more equal NZ
David Shearer’s delivered his second “Vision” speech. It’s good to hear he wants to lead a government that tackles inequality, wants proper jobs rather than casualised ones and our kids earning or learning.
Drip, drip, drip of job losses
We are hearing no end of job loss stories in the news and the government has no plan for New Zealand jobs. Their best idea is to cut the wages of the young, rather than to create jobs of real value. We need workers paid a Living Wage so all Kiwis can have fulfilling lives.
Key laughs off minimum wage earners
John Key’s recent stint at the Big Gay Out wasn’t all target marketing and niche political branding. He also had a run in with living-wage campaigners who took him to task for his government’s poor response to minimum wage earners and asked if he could live on the minimum wage.