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Today the government is rushing through a law change designed to stymie film workers’ attempts to bargain collectively. Under the Employment Relations (Film Production Work) Amendment Bill workers employed in film production work will by default be ‘independent contractors’ rather than employees. This will prevent them bargaining collectively as prescribed under the ERA. It also
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Herald columnist Brian Rudman’s article on the Hobbit dispute is one of the best written on the subject. He manages to capture every aspect of this dispute – the anti-union stuff, the spoilt brat Jackson, the toadying and grovelling part of the NZ national character, the feudal-like carry-on, and the patronising sexism towards Malcolm and
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Matt McCarten, leader of Unite union, has announced today he’s standing in the Mana (Wellington) by-election. Formerly the Alliance party president, Matt has plenty of experience in running electoral campaigns. But his real strength lies in his hands-on experience in fighting for workers’ rights. That is a rare thing in politics these days, where parliament
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Militant unionism and patriotism have never really got on. Film maker Peter Jackson concluded his Labour Day attack on unions with the claim: “Turning us into another state of Australia under the sway of a destructive organisation carries the very real risk of destroying the great big heart that beats inside our films. I believe
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An actors’ union attempt to negotiate better work conditions has sparked the most heated class struggle in recent memory. The workers’ initial claims were modest. As the latest Actors Equity newsletter puts it, the union: … has been working to improve performers’ terms and conditions in the screen industry for some time now. We have
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In the next issue of The Spark we’ll have an article about the Hobbit dispute. In the meantime, here are some comments from The Spark and Workers Party discussion groups over the past week. The Hobbit union witch hunt continues apace, now with the threat of new anti worker laws. We used to get stick
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Chris Brickell’s book Mates and Lovers: A History of Gay New Zealand sheds light on a part of our history previously confined to closets and court records, detailing the history of male homosexuality in this country since the 19th Century. Spark journalist Ian Anderson speaks to Ronald Trifero Nelson, who has adapted this book for
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JUSTICE AND LIBERATION: THE ROAD TO PEACE – Luis Jalandoni is the International Representative of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDF, http://www.ndfp.net), a post that he has held since 1977, and since 1994 he has been the Chairperson of the NDF’s Negotiating Panel for peace talks with the Government of the Philippines.
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The Spark October 2010 reprinted from Beyond Resistance* While the dust settles and Christchurch recovers from the 7.1 earthquake, people have begun to pick up the pieces and get on with their lives. But for many working class people this is not so easy. Those most affected by ‘natural disasters’ – whether by the tsunami
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The Spark October 2010 Philip Fergusson While the media has emphasised how everyone in Canterbury has pulled together in the aftermath of the quake, workers in a number of businesses have found themselves short of pay, being forced to work straight after the quake when they needed some recovery time and being forced to use
Socialist media project based in Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia
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