London: half a million march against cuts

Statement by British Socialist Workers Party

Over half a million people took to the streets of London on Saturday. They were marching against the Con-Dem [Conservative / Liberal Democrats coalition] government’s cuts. It was one of the biggest protests this country has ever seen.

"We're being told that we need to sacrifice, while those people have never sacrificed."

KRISTINE MATTIS, Graduate Student, Activist with Teaching Assistants' Association, Madison: "It seems clear to everyone now that this is a bigger struggle than just a struggle for the unions. It's a struggle against those of the corporate and elite who have been paying fewer and fewer taxes and who caused the entire economic breakdown on Wall Street, a struggle between the rest of us who are being forced to pay for it and being forced to take losses in our wages, losses in our health-care benefits, losses in our pensions because of that. It was sort of a small battle against the budget repair bill, and now it's really just a war of the working people against the people they see as the real group who has not done their fair share of dealing with the economic hardships that we're all facing. We're being told that we need to sacrifice, while those people have never sacrificed. And I think it has to do with just all of us having come together and discussing this issue and probably talking to one another rather than listening to the mainstream media and realizing more broadly where these problems emanate--from where they emanate and what are the true solutions."

NDU’s Robert Reid at Fairness at Work rally

Robert Reid, General Secretary of the National Distribution Union, speaks at the cross union rally in Manukau on October 20th 2010, as part of the national day of action for fairness at work. More on the campaign here: http://fairness.org.nz/

Thousands stand up for workers’ rights

There’s comprahensive coverage of yesterday’s trade union protests against the government’s attacks on workers’ rights at the CTU’s Fairness at Work facebook page. Here’s a brief and enthusiastic summary from that site:

Awesome! By lunchtime more than 15,000 workers had attended stopwork meetings and rallies. 7,000 packed the TelstraClear Stadium in Auckland and 4,000 piled into Parliament Grounds. 1500 rallied in Hamilton, 800 in Hastings and 750 in Nelson. Thousands more are expected in events throughout the afternoon in many centres!! Woop Woop!

I can’t give my own report, because there was no rally here in Christchurch, but I hope you will leave your thoughts and comments about the protests in your area in the comments section.

- David

Government Committee calls 90 day law offensive – but only when applied to John Key

Media Release from the National Distribution Union
October 20, 2010
Embargoed until 1pm, October 20


The National Distribution Union is disgusted with a letter sent to one of its retail worker members by the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee.

General Secretary Robert Reid says the letter from the committee described her submission as “offensive” but all it did was suggest that the same rules apply to the Prime Minister as to workers.

The “offending” words that the retail worker wrote in her submission were:

“Can we put John Key on a 90 day trial and sack him after the 89th day?”

The letter back to her from the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee of Parliament stated:

“The committee considered your submission at a meeting on 6 October 2010 and decided that your added comments were offensive and therefore did not formally receive your submission.  The committee is therefore returning your submission which is attached.”

“This says it all,” Robert Reid says.

“The Government is perfectly happy to pass a law that will put all workers, other than MPs, on a 90 day trial period, but is offended if one of those workers suggests the same law apply to the Prime Minister.

Postpone Burger Fuel pickets until Saturday 18th of September

Tena koe,

 

Please forward this email around your networks. Apologies for cross-posting.

 

Matt McCarten (General Secretary of Unite), Joe Carolan (Unite’s action coordinator) and myself (as a witness for Solidarity Auckland) met this morning with Burger Fuel CEO Josef Roberts and the company’s lawyer at the company’s request.

 

Josef Roberts and the company’s board have agreed to fairly compensate Joanne for her termination as of today.

 

They have also agreed in principle to remove the 90-day no-rights trial period from their individual agreements.

 

They have also agreed in principle to remove any anti-union conditions from their individual agreement and to update and improve it.

 

Because the company is a franchise, Josef Roberts need to take the company’s position to the franchise owners for final agreement.

 

This means he will be in a position to confirm the company’s final position within two weeks. However, he said he will try to get this done before then.

 

Matt and Joe feel they will be able to negotiate a fair deal with the company.

 

I certainly felt that the meeting was amicable and the company was keen to resolve the situation.

 

My recommendation is that we postpone picketing until Saturday the 18^th of September.

 

Just because the action is off, doesn’t mean you can’t meet with other activists to talk about what to do next. Contact the person organising in your area and see if they want to meet up for coffee.

 

This is just the start – join us in taking the next steps.

 

Your commitment to solidarity has proven that direct action works. Although we didn’t take action, the threat of action is often as powerful. Our quick mobilising also proved that activists and supporters are ready to stand up to the attacks on our work rights, our right to organise and our living standards.

 

This action is just one component of a new project (with a working title of “Solidarity”) to build solidarity across the community and workplaces (union and non-union) and put the movement back into the labour movement.

 

I would like to take this opportunity to personally invite you to join us.

 

·         Join one of the new groups in your area: http://solidarity.org.nz/contact/solidarity-groups/

·         If there isn’t a group in your area, send me an email and I will put you in touch with other activists in your area or help you set something up

·         Reply to this email if you would like to join our database/newsletter so we can involve you in other actions in the future

 

Thank-you again for your support.

 

In solidarity,

 

Simon Oosterman

Solidarity Auckland Contact

m. 021 922 551, w. www.solidarity.org.nz

CTU video 2: Interview of Florence Coen, sacked under 90 day fire at will law

2000 in Wellington, but only 600 in Auckland, is this true?

Christchurch rally

 By David

TV3’s estimate of 400 in Christchurch is pretty accurate (I was going to say 500). But I hope their figure of 600 in Auckland is a serious miscount. 2000 in Wellington is respectable, but if these figures are accurate, why were the numbers in the bigger centres so low?

People at the rally I spoke to were clearly pissed off about the attacks, but I didn’t get much sense of a fighting spirit. Attempts to get the crowd chanting were half-hearted and didn’t take off.

The highlight came early, when two marches arrived in the square. They did have their chants sorted out. The traditionally conservative Pubic Service Association calling for “Fairness at Work”, while the slightly smaller radical fringe of the Workers Party and Beyond Resistance, declaring their intention to fight back against the “Class War” waged by the bosses. [I will post videos of both, when I can get it working.] I hope the next protest, on October 20 is a march, not just a rally.

Even double these numbers would not cause the Nats any concern. And it now seems unlikely that the mobilisations will grow big enough, quickly enough to stop the law from passing. Unfortunately, it's at this point that far too many campaigns admit defeat and give up.

The one bright spark is that unions are now naming and shaming the employers who have used the existing 90-day law to sack workers. The CTU’s videos, Unite’s Utu Squads, and the stories of the workers that have been mistreated, could tip the balance of public opinion. And if the Utu protests catch on, they could encourage more workers to come forward, and warn employers off the scheme.

As part of building for the next national day of action on October 20, all unions should get behind the name and shame campaign. You can play your part by forwarding the CTU’s video, or the TV3 link below, and asking around to see if anyone you know has been unfairly treated under this law.

No 90-day trial periods for Hutt City

Media release
VAN – Valley Action Network
19 August 2010

Union members and supporters will be taking action around the country this weekend in support of Fairness at Work. Candidates and supporters from VAN – Valley Action Network will be joining Saturday's rally in Wellington.

 “This is a major issue for voters in the upcoming local body elections”, said VAN spokesperson Grant Brookes, “especially in Lower Hutt.

 “The Hutt City Council elections are about what sort of city we want to create. The actions of the council set the tone for the whole community.

 “Hutt City Council has a responsibility to set a positive example in how it treats the many hard-working people providing its services – not just for the sake of council employees, but for all residents.

 “The government is planning more than a dozen law changes to undermine everyone’s rights at work, including 90-day ‘trial periods’ when all new workers can be sacked unfairly, and restrictions on the ability of union organisers to support union members on the job.

 “VAN supports Fairness at Work, and opposes the impact that the law changes will have on the grassroots residents of Lower Hutt.

 “Unfortunately, many of the current councillors privately support these changes. One Harbour Ward councillor even wrote an article in the Hutt News last year publicly supporting 90-day trials.

 “The good news is that some employers are giving commitments now that even if the laws are passed, they won’t be using 90 day trial periods and won’t stop unions from supporting their members at work. 

“If VAN candidates are elected, we pledge to make Hutt City Council a fair workplace and give these same positive commitments.”

See more at: www.huttvan.org.nz www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=128328787200169

CTU video: Interview of Heather Smith, sacked under 90 day fire at will law

 

This is the first in what promises to be a series of videos from the CTU revealing the real impact of the 90 day fire at will law.

These pesonal stories are exactly what's needed to counter the government's lies that making it easier to sack people will magicly produce jobs in the middle of a recession.

It would also be good to do some interviews with people who have benefitted from the union campaigns over the past few years, to show the positive work that unions do

Currently the law can be used only by businesses with fewer than 20 employees, but the government plans to give this abusive power to all employers.

Heather Smith - unfair dismissal story. 

Heather Smith tells the story of how she was unfairly dismissed under John Key's new 90 day law. www.fairness.org.nz

RALLY 21 & 22 August
Auckland * Wellington * Christchurch * Dunedin

Auckland
1pm, Saturday 21st August
QE2 Square (bottom of Queen St, opposite Britomart)

Wellington
1pm, Saturday 21st August
Civic Square

Christchurch
1pm, Saturday 21st August
Cathedral Square

Dunedin
11am, Sunday 22nd August
Assemble at Dental School, Great King Street
March to rally at the Octagon

CTU: Unions do have evidence over 90 Day trial

Council of Trade Unions media release
19 July 2010

Unions do have evidence of workers being dismissed unfairly under the 90 day provisions that operate for small firms.

Helen Kelly, CTU President, said today that the public has been made aware for instance of the worker at Dunbar Sloane auctioneers and also the worker sacked from Take Note Stationery in Waikanae detailed in Saturday’s press who was fired five minutes before the end of her 90th day.

Protest greets attack on workers rights, but what comes next?

by David

Prime Minister John Key announced a new attack on workers’ rights at the National Party conference in Auckland on Sunday July 18. (Could there be a more appropriate place for the Nat’s get together?)

Of greatest concern are plans to extend the 90-day fire at will law to all workers and restrictions on the rights of trade union officials to visit their members or access a sight to recruit members. These attacks on workers rights are designed to cower New Zealand’s already timid, disorganised and poorly paid workforce even further.

Step out of line in the first three months, perhaps by complaining about poor health and safety or joining a union, and you could be out the door, no questions asked, no reason given.

In response, 500 trade union members protested outside the National’s conference. Here’s a report from one protester:

Despite a heavy police presence, a group of about 40 managed to push through lines of police and Sky City security guards, to enter the lobby of the conference building.

Council of Trade Unions president Helen Kelly addressed the protest and commented on the large size of the crowd considering the short notice. She announced an emergency meeting of all trade union leaders on Thursday to discuss a campaign against the proposed law changes.

The head of the Dairy Workers Union speaking to the crowd, made a statement that the DWU have decided that if any new worker in the Dairy industry is dismissed under the 90 day law, that the union would immediately call a stopwork meeting, “Where we will then decide what we would do.”

“If you remove due process you can expect that we will take direct action.” he said.

This militant declaration, from a union not noted for its militancy was met with loud cheers and applause. Of course such action would be illegal under the current Employment Relations Act.

All in all this protest was a tremendous success and a great first start to this campaign.

A protest in Christchurch, called on Friday night, brought together 40 unionists and called an organising meeting for Monday. A Wellington protest is also due to take place on Monday.

The fire at will law was first introduced early last year, but can only be used by bosses with less than 20 employees. Unions made a token protest at that time, but at lot less than they had a few years earlier, when the idea was first raised in a private members bill by National MP Wayne Mapp. One apparent reason for this was that some unions were, at the time trying to cooperate with National around the so-called Job Summit. That spirit of partnership got them about as far as John Key’s cycle way.

Sunday’s spirited protest was a good first response. But what comes next? Will this be the start of a sustained fight to defend workers rights? Or do we just wait for the next election and campaign for a Labour-led government?

Chris Trotter is optimistic union leaders will follow through with their bold words at Sunday’s protest and take to the streets.


Sue Bradford has warned that both the unions and the Labour Party leadership will need to do a better job than they did in response to the benefit cuts and Employment Contracts Act back in 1991.

UNITYblog welcomes readers ideas on how workers and their unions should respond to the government’s attacks.

Protest this Sunday – stop National’s attacks on workers

from Facebook page

Date: Sunday, July 18, 2010
Time: 10:00am - 1:00pm
Location: Sky City Hotel, Auckland CBD

The National Party will announce drastic attacks on workers rights, seeking to curtail Unions rights to Bargain, access greenfield sites, access existing sites, slash education and training leave, and cut back on Holidays.

Unions will vigourously resist these attacks from the outset. If National are declaring war on workers, they should prepare for Resistance.

The Battle starts this Sunday. 10am. Sky City Hotel.

The National Party Conference is happening there this weekend.

The official announcement on the attacks will be made at 11am.

We aim to disrupt this session.

Stand up for Workers Rights.

'We've already moved public opinion' – NZEI organiser

UNITYblog spoke with Peter Hughes (left in photo above), an NZEI field officer (union organiser) who travelled on the Bus Tour, about the union’s campaign against national standards.

How did the tour go?

“The Bus Tour kicked off on the first day of term. Hundreds of schools have been visited. We’ve aimed to do four or five a day. The initial meetings spurred demand for a whole lot more.

“We found that those who were concerned to start with have become very concerned, and are trying to find strategies for engaging with communities. It’s already moved public opinion.”

What do you think about teachers boycotting national standards, an idea mentioned by NZEI president Frances Nelson at the rally at parliament on March 31?

“Technically, a boycott is industrial action, which is illegal under the Employment Relations Act. But it won’t be illegal after July 1, when our collective agreement expires. Some teachers want to link our pay claim to the campaign against national standards. There’s a concern that national standards will lead to ‘performance pay’, where teachers are paid more or less according to their school’s test results.”

The government has threatened to sack elected school boards and replace them with commissioners if they refuse to implement national standards. Can they do it?

“It’s a numbers game. If even 200 schools refuse to do it, the government won’t be able to carry out its threats. There won’t be enough commissioners! But it must be done collectively. Individual boards and principals can be picked off.”

What’s the potential for this campaign to feed into more general grassroots resistance to the National government?

“I was in the union office this morning. The members who came in to support the campaign were talking about the government’s plans to mine the National Parks. The issues are crossing over.

“Right now, the public petition calling for a trial of national standards before they’re introduced is extremely important. We’ve got over 21,000 signatures now. We need tens of thousands more.”

(For more on the fight against the government's national standards, click here)

‘National Standards’ in primary schools – first big defeat for the government?

by Grant Brookes

The growing campaign against “national standards" hit parliament on March 31, when around 200 teachers handed over signed Appeals to the government from nearly half the school communities in New Zealand. The Appeals call on the government not to implement the standards without trialling them first.

It was the culmination of the nine week Bus Tour organised by the NZEI primary teachers union. The Tour had visited schools and held hundreds of community meetings from Kaitaia to Bluff.

Labour and Green Party MPs lined up on parliament steps to greet the noisy teachers. Some Labour MPs had even spent time on the campaign bus to show their support. A wide array of trade unionists – from the Nurses Organisation to the Maritime Union, from the Finsec bank workers union to the National Distribution Union – joined the teachers' rally.

The protest reflected the scale and breadth of the movement that’s building around this issue. A UMR poll in February found that two thirds of people, and 71 percent of those with primary school age children, support NZEI’s call.

Their campaign has the potential to deliver the union movement’s first comprehensive defeat of the government and tip the balance back in favour of all grassroots people.

Yet just a week earlier, Labour education spokesperson Trevor Mallard told a Wellington campaign meeting, “I think in the end, we’ll end up with something that looks like some kind of compromise.

“NZEI is pushing hard for a trial... But public reporting is almost inevitable now.”

Put simply, "national standards" are like exams for primary school kids – in reading, writing and 'rithmetic – with the results published in the media.

The government touts them as the solution for low educational achievement by a minority of school children, mainly those from disadvantaged backgrounds.

But as NZEI has explained very well, these are the kids who'll be worst off under a national standards regime. "Not all children come to school equal", says the union. A child may have strengths in many areas, but not in literacy and numeracy – which are the only subjects to be tested. Labelling them as failures because they can't do these tests will damage their motivation to learn.

The exam results will also be used – officially or unofficially – to rank schools. Richer, more mobile families will gravitate even more to the "elite" schools. The rest of us will be left with struggling, underfunded schools.

The pressure on teachers to get good test results will inevitably force some to neglect a child's broader needs for learning and development. And the pressure will be passed on to the kids, too. It will no longer be OK for them to progress at their own rate.

Not surprisingly, with so much riding on the results, similar schemes overseas have seen widespread cheating and are now being abandoned.

The government has been unable to counter these arguments from the union. But national standards aren't really about helping poor achievers, anyway. The real reason for introducing national standards is to control teachers.

Teachers are a difficult group for the government to manage. Not only are they highly unionised, well educated professionals, who work with a degree of autonomy in the classroom, their immediate bosses (principals) are former classroom teachers and union members, too.

Above the principals are the boards of trustees. Managers and businesspeople tend to dominate on school boards. Even so, board members are elected from the school community, and in lower and mid-decile schools the boards, too, have ties to the working class.

The government wants tighter control over teachers in order to dictate what is taught to the next generation of workers. It's no coincidence that national standards are focusing only on literacy and numeracy, and not on skills like critical thinking or developing self-esteem and a sense of self-worth (part of the current health curriculum). National standards are about serving the interests of employers by creating a productive, obedient workforce.

The most insidious aspect of all is the effect that "national standards" will have on the ethos of cooperation and on working class values like solidarity which are nurtured in many primary schools.

The tests will pit children against their peers from a very young age, in competition for the good grades. Each school will likewise be in competition with all other schools for places higher up the public league table.

NZEI president Frances Nelson told the rally at parliament, "Huge concern exists over whether this is politically driven, rather than being a policy in the best interests of children and their learning."

National standards, ultimately, are about corroding cooperation and nurturing the anti-human, competitive values underpinning capitalism.

But as Frances Nelson said, "As professionals, we have both a right and an obligation to challenge an educational policy that has no evidence that it will work".

“We did meet with minister Anne Tolley just a little while ago. We gave her a list of all of the schools that have signed up to trial the standards.

A cheer went up when she added, “We also indicated there are a number of schools who weren’t interested in trialling the standards at all, because they intend to boycott.”

With this level of industrial strength and community support, there's no need to heed Trevor Mallard's suggestion to settle for "some kind of compromise" that leaves National's agenda largely intact.

Teachers have comprehensively beaten the National government before, through a community-backed campaign of industrial action. In 1991, National introduced a policy of "bulk funding" for schools. It aimed to divide and weaken teachers by breaking up their national collective agreement, and to make schools more reliant on fundraising and less on government money.

For the next seven years, primary and secondary teachers took action, including nationwide strikes and dozens of wildcat strikes. Foreshadowing today's talk of boycotts, both primary and secondary teachers boycotted the introduction of the government's new curriculum. Many of these actions were in defiance of National's anti-union laws.

When National was finally voted out, eight years later, there were still only 17 percent of schools signed up to bulk funding. The policy was dropped. Teachers held onto their national collective - the only major group to do so. This later aided other unionists to regain national agreements for themselves.

Building up to a huge campaign of boycotts against national standards is what's needed now. Primary teachers are due to enter bargaining for their collective employment agreement soon, making industrial action over both pay and national standards a possibility.

But to have the confidence to win, teachers will need strong public support. The next phase of the campaign will focus on the public petition, 21,000 signatures and growing. Download it here and get collecting!

Environmentalists need to support coal miners

by Pat O'Dea

Rarely has a chance presented itself, where coal miners and environmentalists could be standing on the same side of the barricades.

The coal-miners are fighting Solid Energy's plan to increase productivity, this plan entails removal of safety delegates chosen by the miners themselves. Solid Energy are also trying to employ contract workers for use in the mines, with the demand that these workers be excluded from the protection of the mining industry Multi Employment Agreement, (MECA).

This struggle broke out into the open when Solid Energy locked out the miners at the Rotowaro open cast mine in Huntly. Solid Energy launched this attack to try and force these workers to accept contracting out mine jobs, at lesser conditions.

Workers at three other mines struck in solidarity with the locked out miners at Rotowaro. Also rail workers from the RMTU put a ban on transporting all coal from the affected mines.

Since the start of this dispute things have developed further with the miners demanding shorter hours with no loss of pay. ie. a cut in productivity (see http://www.epmu.org.nz/news/show/172992).

In the struggle to save the world from global warming, environmentalists should also be in support of lowering productivity in the coal mining industry.

Like all "for profit" businesses Solid Energy will say these reforms will cost too much. Environmentalists and unionists need to promote the idea that such reforms go some way to reflecting the true environmental and human cost of this industry.

Environmental activists should seriously consider giving their support to this significant struggle against the intensification of the exploitation of nature and the miners.

If a delegation of environmentalists could be organised to join the coal miners on their picket lines, it would in itself be a newsworthy event, which would be an aid to these workers by publicising their cause. This would ensure that these workers would give a receptive hearing to the need to take up environmental concerns into their industry.

Imagine all the interesting debates on global warming, workers solidarity and the fight for a better world for all, on the night shift around the burning oil drum.

For these reasons and more environmentalists should be challenged to take up the coal miners cause. After all if coal mining has to be seriously curtailed to save the planet, it can't be done with out the support and understanding of the coal miners themselves.

Often the debate on the dangers of global warming is framed by the argument: jobs or the environment. Which is the classic win-lose position, environmentalists vs. workers.

In my opinion to become more accepted environmentalists need to move to a win-win position. We should take this chance to raise a more humane solution.

The mad market drive to increase productivity and consumption in an endless quest for growth, which in the long run is unsustainable in any industry, but which is more so in this industry, will endanger the natural world, if it is not cut back.

Environmentalists should enter into serious debate with these workers while standing in support of these workers on their picket lines.

The converstation can include alternatives to coal, redeployment and retraining, ideas for the eventual sane phasing out of coal burning and mining activities, overproduction, and the economic crisis.

On the national and international scene agreement on limiting carbon emissions seems to becoming more remote. In New Zealand our Emissions Trading Scheme allows polluters to protect their profits by continuing to pollute as before, whole the tax payer foots the bill.

But things could change dramatically when the workers involved in these industries and their unions are won to environmental concerns.

Instead of lobbying the corporates on one hand and facing off against workers on the other, environmentalists should be lobbying and working with workers, and facing off against the corporates.

Friday 27 November: day of action for low-paid public sector workers

A series of protest rallies will take place across the country on Friday 27 November to protest wage freezes in the public services, in particular the health, disability care and education sectors, and to build wider public support for the freeze to be thawed. 

The action will primarily involve members of the SFWU, NZEI and PSA but all other affiliates are encouraged to participate and show their support for this cause. 

The rallies are timed to take place for one hour at lunchtime on the 27th between 12.30 pm and 1.30 pm. 

Please circulate this notice widely and encourage your members to join the rallies where they can and ensure a significant public display of support for the messages to the Government about low-paid state and state-funded workers opposing the wage freeze. 

In some locations transport will be arranged to help members attend. 

For further information contact the local SFWU organiser or call 0800 UNION1 (0800 864 661). 

Fliers and branding for banners etc is in preparation to ensure unity and consistency of message across the country and will be forwarded soon. Please use the attached notice and list of venues to inform members. 

Regards  
Peter Conway 
 

Secretary
 New Zealand Council of Trade Unions – Te Kauae Kaimahi 


P O Box 6645
 Wellington
 

+64 4 8023816
 

mobile 0274 939 748 

peterc@nzctu.org.nz
 www.union.org.nz  

Venues for 27 November Lift the Freeze rallies 12.30pm-1.30pm  

Kaitaia: Cnr Redan/Commerce St  
Whangarei: Main mall in the centre of the town – Cameron/ James St Cnr  
Auckland: Methodist Church on Queen Street  
Thames: Outside the Civic Centre on Mary Street  
Hamilton: Garden Place, Victoria St  
Taumarunui: Next to library on “One Way Street”  
Rotorua: Cnr of Arawa St and Ranolf St  
Taupo: State Highway One – near Council Buildings  
Tauranga: Red Square at bottom of town – Devonport St/The Strand/Spring St Cnr  
Whakatane: The Strand/Commerce St (near roundabout)  
Gisborne: Cnr of Gladstone Rd/Reads Quay (near the bridge)  
Hastings: St Johns Hall Southland Rd  
New Plymouth: If sunny, meet between centre city and Devon St. If wet, St Josephs Church  
Hawera: Salvation Army Hall Regent St, marching up High St to Chester Burrows office.  
Whanganui: Majestic Square on Victoria Ave  
Palmerston North: PSA House King Street and then march to Square  
Levin: Adventure Park Pavilion, Main Highway and then march down main street  
Wairarapa: Old Folks Hall Cole Street  
Wellington: Parliament  
Nelson: Top of Trafalgar Street  
Westport: Outside Hospital  
Greymouth: Outside Grey Base Hospital, High Street  
Christchurch: Victoria Square (march from TUC)  
Ashburton: Checkerboard Town Centre
Timaru: Town Square cnr Strathallan and Strafford Sts  
Dunedin: Octagon (march from Hospital)  
Invercargill: Cnr Tay and Dee Streets

Lockout wave continues un-remarked

by Pat O’Dea 

The wave of lockouts continues to go un-remarked by both the government and the opposition, with the media carrying only the barest mention. Over the past few months there has hardly been a week, when one, two, or even three lockouts have been going on around the country. This week has been no different. 

The lockout of miners at Rotowaro is now entering its third week, as state-owned coal miner Solid Energy try to force contracting out and casualisation into the mining industry. Today employers at aluminium can maker Amcor, have joined the lockout wave, in an effort to bludgeon these workers into giving up smoko breaks. 

Imagine the outcry if instead of a wave of lockouts by employers to cut wages and enforce layoffs and casualisation, there was a wave of strikes by workers for better wages and conditions, and permanent jobs. 

The loud denunciations by MPs from the pulpit of parliament, would be carried in banner headlines right across the mainstream media. Experts and commentators would be filling the radio airwaves and making guest appearances on TV Editorialists would be spilling copious amounts of ink in the press, bemoaning “greedy workers”, “wreaker unionists” and my all time favourite “lazy featherbedders”, accusing these “overpaid and under-worked”, “industrial militants” of “holding the country to ransom”. 

Truly we live in a class society.

Council of Trade Unions turning towards class struggle?

Could a column by Helen Kelly in last Monday's Dominion Post (below) signal a turning point for the union movement?

 

There's no doubt that the opinion piece by the Council of Trade Unions president is significant – both for what it says, and for what it doesn't say.
 

First of all, Helen Kelly's column connects three separate attacks on groups of workers and explains them in terms of wider economic and political forces.
 

Her analysis is correct. Of course the disputes at Telecom, at Open Country Cheese and on the Auckland buses are related.
 

But for decades now, it's been rare to hear union leaders to treat disputes this way.
 

Fundamentally, what Helen Kelly is talking about is a common cause shared by different groups of workers – and a common mindset among employers. She's talking, in other words, about a class struggle.
 

As she acknowledges, this is a shift in perspective from the leaders of the union movement. 
 

And yet, after announcing this shift in bold terms her concluding paragraph seems oddly out of place. It's an appeal for the employers (and the National-led government) to start "working cooperatively" with unions again.
 

The jarring inconsistency is because of what the column does not say. Having explained the forces leading employers to use bully boy tactics – forces which are not about to go away – the CTU president says nothing on what unions are going to do about it.
 

This much has not changed. For many years, the CTU has focused its energies on appeals to the government to solve the union movement's problems, rather than organising independent working class action to achieve the movement's goals through its own collective strength.
 

It might be argued that the business pages of a daily newspaper are not the place to lay out the strategy of the union movement, and that behind the scenes the CTU is doing a lot to organise opposition to bullying employers like Telecom, Open Country and NZ Bus.
 

But you can't rally workers, and the broader public, around a banner that's kept hidden behind the scenes. Class struggle demands mass organisation, which takes place out in the open.
 

Somewhere, sometime soon, union leaders will have to lead. The analysis contained in Helen Kelly's column calls for a strategy of coordinated, mass resistance by the union movement as a whole.

Employers quick to use bully tactics

Helen Kelly

BUSINESS FORUM

INDUSTRIAL relations in New Zealand seem to have taken a turn for the worse in recent months. Bus drivers and dairy workers find themselves locked out by their employers and Telecom engineers have been made redundant en masse and are refusing to buy back their jobs while the network rapidly crumbles.

Until recently the reaction to the global downturn in New Zealand was characterised by a willingness on the part of workers, unions and employers to work together to mitigate the worst effects of the recession.

The jobs summit and the nine day fortnight are examples of that. Is there some reason why it has all gone sour?

Each of these disputes has different origins. Only one is straightforward, about pay and conditions. Another is about every worker's right to bargain collectively, and the last is about an attempt to shift cost and risk on to a workforce at the expense of their job security, livelihoods and bargaining power under the cloak of "contracting out" through a third party.

On the face of it the global crisis has nothing to do with any of these disputes. Significantly, none of the three employers – Telecom, Talley's and NZ Bus – is in any way struggling financially. But there is little doubt that the recession is a factor in the way they are handling the disputes.

Although redundancies are not being forced on any of these employers, there is an implication that workers should feel damned lucky to have a job in the current economic climate and should accept whatever wages and conditions are tossed their way.

There's a recession on, don't you know? Belts must be tightened.

I don't know how many holes Telecom boss Paul Reynolds has on his $5 million belt but I don't see much tightening going on there.

That's not boardroom bonus jealousy. I think it's legitimate to ask why these companies are taking such a hard line against the workers who are delivering their respectable profits in tough times.

The truth is that they are looking at the unemployment figures and thinking that now would be a good time to stamp on wages, hours, and workers' bargaining power. Workers will not put up a fight, they think, while fear of the lengthening dole queues prevails.

Unfortunately, the employers got it wrong. Workers are perfectly capable of understanding the situation of their employer and acting accordingly. Hence the many settlements that have been reached in recent months where unions have acted reasonably and responsibly and employers have offered fair and realistic terms.

Unemployment is a real fear for many New Zealanders. But there are plenty who know that their companies are doing well enough, and they are not about to bow down to employers who throw their toys out of the pram at the first sign of resistance to their plans. Both of the current lockouts are gross over-reactions.

The actions of Talley's-owned Open Country Cheese in particular, where a wholly disproportionate and illegal six-week lockout has been accompanied by intimidation of union members, use of strike breaking outside labour and misinformation, are reminiscent of the bad old days of industrial strife.

All this in response to the employees simply exercising their legal right to union representation and to bargain collectively. Someone is living in the past here, and it is not the Dairy Workers' Union.

The union has worked harmoniously with employers and has not been engaged in any serious industrial action for more than 20 years. It is sad and so unnecessary and you have to wonder why Open Country acted with such unwarranted ferocity.

Could last year's change of government be an influence? The Government wasted little time when it carne into office before forcing through its removal of unfair dismissal rights from new employees in small firms in the first 90 days of their contracts. There was no good economic reason for this move, but it immediately set a tone for its attitude to workers' rights. Cuts to public sector payrolls, moves to make the fourth week of annual leave sellable and other policies that have negative impacts on working people seem to confirm the impression of an administration more behind the cause of the employer than the employee.

None of these moves would have any positive effect on the country's productivity, its ability to pull out of recession or the length of the dole queues.

The Jobs Summit and support for the nine-day fortnight present a different face of the Government, albeit one which has had limited effect. We would all be better off if employers took their lead from this approach. What will be positive is employers dealing honestly and openly with unions and employees, working cooperatively in the best interests of each enterprise and not reaching for the factory keys as a negotiating tool.

Gumboot power: Bridgeman Concrete workers beat lockout

By Pat O’Dea
 

Workers locked-out for nine days by Bridgeman Concrete in South Auckland, hardened their picket last week and actively impeded two concrete trucks from leaving the depo, costing the company $3,000 in ruined concrete.

The company responded by caving in, and lifted the lock-out.

Although lockouts are legal, effective picketing – actually stopping scabs, vehicles or goods crossing the picket line – is not. 

Because of the illegal nature of effective picketing, the picture above is the only photo released by the NDU of this militant action. As well as lifting their lockout Bridgeman also conceded to workers’ demands for a fairer redundancy agreement that does not allow them to discriminate against union members (the original cause of the dispute). The company has also agreed, for the first time, to redundancy payments and full consultation with the NDU if planning redundancies. 

In a comical footnote; Bridgeman Concrete has sent the bill for the ruined concrete to the union. I wonder if they will try to Baycorp them? Bridgeman Concrete just might find that the last laugh will be on them, because Baycorp has recently been unionised by the Unite union, who are very close allies of the NDU. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if all the paperwork accidentally slipped down a crack behind some desks. All power to the gumboot.