For a real summit

March 5, 2009 by

Don Franks

The worth of the recent Jobs Summit can be summed up in one word – Sealord.

The first major employment incident after the government sponsored summit was an announcement of imminent job losses from the aptly feudally titled company.

Sealord, owned jointly by Nippon Suisan Kaisha of Japan and Maori tribes via Aotearoa Fisheries, intends to cut 180 land-based jobs in Nelson and is not ruling out the closure of its plant there.

The Service & Food Workers Union (SFWU) said the company wanted to cut the pay of remaining workers by $70 a week.

Prime Minister John Key said:

“I think in the case of Sealords they’re actually restructuring their business.

“One thing we have to be realistic about is the recession will ultimately drive some of those changes, it’s not to say we’re not hugely sympathetic to those who have lost their job, we understand that there will be change,” Mr Key told TV3’s Sunrise.

In other words, when it comes to day to day business decisions, the summit means zilch. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Economics, National Party

Workers rights from day 1

February 28, 2009 by

Around 30 people picketed outside National MP Nicky Wagner’s office on Friday 27 February in protest at the government’s 90 day sacking law.90-day-protest-chch

The picket was called by the Workers Rights Campaign, a joint WP-Alliance initiative which has broadened out to involve class-struggle anarchists, Socialist Workers and anyone who wants to oppose the 90-day legislation on an anti-capitalist basis.

Wagner’s staff locked the doors, apparently fearing an occupation although one hadn’t been planned. Occupations can wait until the first firings start.

The attendance included Workers Party, Alliance, Socialist Workers, anarchists (including from the new Workers Solidarity Movement), and small contingents from both the EPMU and SFWU, with their union banners, plus some high school students from Unlimited (an alternative school in the city centre).

Filed Under: National Party

Picket against new “Fire-at-Will” law in Christchurch

February 26, 2009 by

dalek

Press Release: Workers Rights Campaign

Canterbury’s newly-formed Workers Rights Campaign is planning a symbolic picket at the offices of Government M.P. Nicola Wagner to protest at the new “fire-at-will” provisions of New Zealand’s industrial law.

Campaign spokesman Paul Piesse said today that the justification for the new law, which allows employers to sack workers within the first three months of their employment without giving any reason at all, let alone any justification, is a hypocritical sham.

The big lie, Mr Piesse said, is the deceit that the law would encourage employers to take on people they otherwise would not. Employers, he said, only ever employ people when they really need them. Their objective is to maximise their profits – they don’t function as a social service to the unemployed.

Neither do they engage the least appealing applicant; and nor will they because of the new law.

The Workers Rights Campaign says that the law is a breach of civil rights, in that it discriminates against a specific group of citizens – job applicants – distinguishing them from those already employed.

Mr Piesse added that the law is aimed at the most vulnerable: the young; casual and part time workers; those made redundant from their previous employment – likely to be a rapidly increasing number of New Zealanders; anyone changing jobs; and older workers.
The Workers Rights Campaign will picket the premises of any employer availing him/herself of this contemptible new law when it is brought to its attention.

Mr Piesse said that the new law was just the start of an employer-Government campaign to make working people pay the price of the inevitable and cyclic crisis of the capitalist system.

The picket at Wagner’s office, 189 Montreal St Christchurch, will take place on Friday 27th February at 1 p.m.

Filed Under: Industrial Relations Legislation, National Party, Workers in Struggle Tagged With:

Kindergarten teachers deserve wider support

February 8, 2009 by

-Don Franks

The Spark February 2009

Kindergarten teachers are seeking to ensure they don’t cop a 90-day trial period when they start a new job.

The workers’ union, NZEI Te Riu Roa, has lodged the first employment claim in response to the National government’s anti-worker Employment Relations Amendment Act 2008. (Under the new law, rushed through Parliament before Christmas without any public consultation, an employer need give no reason for sacking someone in any work site of less than 20 people within the first 90 days of their employment.)

NZEI’s National Secretary Paul Goulter says the union believes the 90-day probation legislation is unfair and unjust to workers and has serious implications for the education sector where recruitment is a major challenge.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: National Party, Workers in Struggle

Make National’s “Fire at Will” law a dead letter!

February 2, 2009 by

dalek

A forum to discuss plans for resisting the new 90-day legislation, the National-led government’s Xmas present to workers, is being held on Wednesday, February 4 at the WEA (Workers Educational Association) building, 59 Gloucester St, Christchurch, starting at 7pm.

Speakers include Andrew Mckenzie (Alliance; and a lawyer specialising in labour issues); Byron Clark (Workers Party; youth union activist); Fay Birch (cleaner and worker-advocate, specialising in personal grievance issues). Other union speakers have been invited.

The meeting is organised by the Workers Party and the Alliance Party.

All welcome!

Filed Under: National Party Tagged With:
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