Adapted from TEU media release

Workers at Lincoln University’s Telford campus have negotiated successfully the right to be included on the Lincoln collective agreement. Prior to the merger of Telford Rural Polytechnic with Lincoln University, hostel and kitchen staff at Telford had no employment conditions providing rules around hours of work or shift allowances. Their new agreement will give kitchen staff time and quarter for working on the weekends and will give hostel supervision staff an allowance for weekend work.

Tertiary Education Union (TEU) deputy secretary Nanette Cormack says these terms do not yet match those received by other staff doing similar jobs at Lincoln University, but they are an improvement. The university has also committed in its terms of settlement to deliver equity with other employees in comparable roles.

“The changes agreed to in this Terms of Settlement are seen as a first step in that process” reads the ratified Terms of Settlement. The new agreement also affords members a 1.8 per cent pay rise backdated to the beginning of the year. The one-year agreement will expire on 31 December, at which point TEU hopes to continue to move Telford’s kitchen and hostel staff towards employment equity with other Lincoln staff.

Nanette Cormack says the most important step in winning these improved hours of work conditions was staff joining the union and negotiating to be covered by the collective agreement.

“When workers are members of a union and have collective coverage they have far more power to improve their working conditions. Union membership is crucial to winning pay and employment equity.”

Elizabeth Schulte reports on the proud conclusion of the Chicago teachers’ strike. Mario Cardenas, Trish Kahle and Eric Ruder contributed to this article, originally published on Socialist Worker.

CHICAGO TEACHERS are returning to work after a nine-day strike–standing proud after driving back Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s attack on their jobs, their union and their schools.

Late on Tuesday afternoon, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) House of Delegates voted overwhelmingly in favor of suspending their strike and going back to work on Wednesday. The tentative agreement that the CTU reached with the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) now goes to members for a ratification vote over the next two weeks.

“I’m excited, and most teachers echo this sentiment,” said Lawrence Balark, a teacher at Moos Elementary on the city’s West Side. “We are going back to work, and standing strong in solidarity in doing so. It was definitely a victory. So many other unions have had to accept merit pay, but I’m proud to say that we held that off.” [Read more…]

In its platform, the Workers Party (NZ) calls for the unrestricted right to strike. Here Ian Anderson, a writer for The Spark, interviews socialist and union delegate Andrew Tait, on a recent resolution supporting the right to sympathy strikes.

The Spark: Can you talk a little about the Engineers, Printers and Manufacturers Union (EPMU) itself, and how you got involved?

AT: I’ve been keen on unions since I was a kid, back in 1991 when the Nats tried to smash unions. I love the idea that we can work together to make a better world. I’ve also been a socialist since I was a teenager. I joined the International Socialists Organisation in 1994, and have always joined the union at uni or at work. In about 2007 I joined Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union when I started work at the newspaper in Dunedin, and after about four years became a delegate for my floor. The EPMU is the biggest private-sector union and one of the most diverse. It covers posties, airline workers, and timber workers as well as engineers, printers and manufacturing workers. The EPMU is a major supporter of the Labour Party. It’s the biggest private sector union because in the 1990s it merged with a whole lot of unions but it has been hit pretty hard by redundancies, especially in manufacturing. The big loss in Dunedin recently was the closure of Fisher & Paykel.

The Spark: You had a resolution passed on the right to strike. What does this resolution mean?

AT: The resolution was that the union lobby for the introduction of the right to conduct secondary (sympathy) strikes. The immediate inspiration for it was the Ports of Auckland dispute, where Rail and Maritime Union workers were forced to supply the ports when they were run by scab labour. If this resolution became law, the RMTU workers could refuse to supply the port and not be penalised. It would massively increase the industrial effectiveness of strikes. [Read more…]

By GRANT BROOKES, in Melbourne

20,000 striking teachers marched to the Victorian state parliament in Melbourne on September 5. Outside the capital, 20,000 more stopped work in regional centres. It was the biggest teachers strike in Victoria’s history.

They were protesting over very similar issues facing teachers and support staff in Aotearoa, including a below-inflation pay offer and “performance pay”, based on scores from “national standards” testing. Their action shows how to respond.

For the first time, teachers from Victoria’s independent and private schools took action alongside their public sector colleagues. This was in defiance of a ruling which said the strike by the Independent Education Union members might be illegal.

Another first was united action by all of the public school staff in the Australian Education Union (AEU) – teachers, principals and education support staff, together. [Read more…]

Government leaves Oyang crew uncompensated

A year after the crew of the Oyang 75 jumped ship in Lyttelton alleging mistreatment including physical and sexual abuse aboard the Korean owned vessel, the government has stated officially that sorting out unpaid wages is a matter for the shipping agent. Most members of the Indonesian crew received annual incomes of between $6,700 and $11,600, well below the New Zealand minimum wage despite a guarantee that they would receive it.

This announcement could affect as many as 97 fishermen. In May the government legislated a ban on foreign fishing vessels that will be transitioned over the next four years, citing the issues that have occurred with the treatment of workers, as well as safety (another boat, the Oyang 70 sunk last year claiming the lives of 6 fishermen) and other concerns such around fishing regulations. Prior to the ban foreign chartered ships which catch fish worth $650 million a year.

Wages barely keeping up with inflation

The Labour Cost Index (LCI) released last month and representing the year to June shows that wages and salaries are no further ahead compared to inflation than they were six months ago, and 2.5 per cent behind where they were in March 2009.

“Inflation is low, and wages certainly aren’t pushing up prices. But the economy is going nowhere with unemployment remaining high and at current settings likely to remain there for a long time.” Said Council of Trade Unions (CTU) economist Bill Rosenberg. “Most union members on collective employment agreements are getting increases in their pay rates, though there is a big range in the size of the increases.”

“In the EPMU, the largest private sector union, for example the big Metals multi-employer collective agreement covering over 1000 workers in over 100 engineering and manufacturing firms, has been settled at a 2.8 per cent increase in the first year, guaranteeing all those workers that rise. Progressive supermarket employees in FIRST union are in their second year of a 5 per cent annual increase”

“Many state sector employees are getting much less often between 1 and 2 per cent because of the government’s actions in suppressing pay increases, meaning many have fallen behind the increased cost of living. The LCI for the public sector rose only 0.3 per cent in the June quarter compared to 0.5 per cent for the private sector.” [Read more…]