The 90-day bill – us and them

December 10, 2008 by

-Jared Phillips

Continuing with the New Zealand employers’ labour-flexibilisation drive, Prime Minister John Key has announced the introduction of a 90-day probationary employment bill that will allow new workers to be sacked without appeal, and it will come into force in March 2009.

What it means for workers

Those whose conditions will be directly attacked are the employees who are or will be in their first 90 days of employment at firms employing less than 20 people.

Slightly more than 30% of employees are employed in firms with less than 20 employees. The Council of Trade Unions has observed that of all employees, approximately 100,000 are in the first 90 days of employment, with a small employer, at any one time.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Industrial Relations Legislation, NZ Labour Party, Union movement, Workers in Struggle

Australian socialist gives firsthand account of revolutionary Venezuela

December 9, 2008 by

Peter Boyle from the Australian radical paper Green Left Weekly spoke in Auckland 9 December on his impressions of the revolutionary transformation of Venezuela. The meeting was hosted by RAM.

Peter arrived in Auckland straight from Venezuela where he has spent the past three weeks.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Cuba, Venezuela, Workers in Struggle

What can we expect from National?

December 7, 2008 by

The Spark December 2008 – January 2009
– Philip Ferguson

With National back in power, albeit as a minority government, what can workers expect? Is this going to be a repeat of the first term of the last National government (1990-1993), the one that produced the “mother of all budgets” (cutting the dole, the DPB and other benefits by around 25%) and the notorious Employment Contracts Act?
According to much of the left, it is going to be just as bad – or even worse! They think this is especially so because of ACT, and often insist on referring to the government as the National-ACT coalition. A number of important points are missed by that analysis, however.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Elections, National Party, Workers in Struggle

Masport workers show there’s honour in fighting

December 4, 2008 by

Striking workers at Masport Foundries looked rapt to be in the sunshine and open air as they walked off the job for the first time in 14 years this morning. Members of the EPMU and the Moulders Union voted overwhelmingly for strike action after rejecting a below-inflation pay offer of 3% on wages only (not on any of their numerous allowances).

masport

The all-out indefinite strike is also a protest against repeated attempts by the employer to undermine the Collective Agreement and exclude some workers involved in production from coverage (i.e. technicians). As Gordon Thompson, EPMU delegate, stated: “Its about respect. Its about holding your head high. There’s honour in fighting.”

Supporters are invited to show their solidarity by joining the next picket from 8-10:00am on Monday December 8th at 37 Mt Wellington Highway, Panmure, Auckland.

Filed Under: Workers in Struggle

Solidarity to rebuild unions

December 3, 2008 by

-Daphna Whitmore

During the 1990s under the National government union membership fell by 50 percent. In 2000 just after Labour came in to office 69 percent of the public sector workers were covered by collective agreements and 21 percent of workers in private sector jobs.

Did that situation improve during nine years of “a worker-friendly government”, as the CTU leadership describe Labour?

Not at all. This year 59 percent of public sector workers have collective agreements, and a mere 10 percent of private sector workers.

The table below shows the grim reality.

union-membership-2008

And while the public sector collective agreement coverage declined, it is still significantly higher than the private sector.

A really serious trade union movement would look at assisting the private sector through subsidies from the much better off public sector. We need a union movement that takes the interests of the whole of the working class. That’s the sort of solidarity that would help build up unions in the private sector, which is where exploitation of the working class originates.

Filed Under: National Party, NZ Labour Party, Union movement, Workers in Struggle
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