Union News to 28/9/12

Strike averted as NZ Bus and Unions reach agreement http://www.voxy.co.nz/national/strike-averted-nz-bus-and-unions-reach-agreement/5/135467

Disgraceful injury figures show health and safety policy needs to change http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1209/S00206/injury-figures-show-health-and-safety-policy-needs-to-change.htm

Shocking work death toll revealed in report http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/7686055/Shocking-work-death-toll-revealed-in-report

Injured workers would fill Eden Park four times over http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/injured-workers-would-fill-eden-park-four-times-over-5085775

Historic CTU/Iwi Relationship Hui – Hui Whakawhanaungatanga http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1209/S00213/historic-ctuiwi-relationship-hui.htm

Work trials ‘adding to skills shortages’ http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/7666692/Work-trials-adding-to-skills-shortages

Bullying rife in public service – survey http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/7664815/Bullying-rife-in-public-service-survey

Public sector pay lags private firms http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/7664578/Public-sector-pay-lags-behind-private-firms

Port dispute unresolved a year on http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/7671598/Port-dispute-unresolved-a-year-on

ACIL confused about their role in Port of Auckland dispute http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/AK1209/S00276/acil-confused-about-their-role-in-port-of-auckland-dispute.htm

Port secrecy fuels Labour law bid http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10834473

Ports of Auckland wharfie dispute hasn’t gone away http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/ports-auckland-wharfie-dispute-hasnt-gone-away-ca-128266

Auckland bus drivers vote against offer from NZ Bus http://www.firstunion.org.nz/content/auckland-bus-drivers-vote-against-offer-nz-bus-0

Organised student job scam probed http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10832529

The online submission to support extending paid parental leave is now live and circulating! Please spread amongst your networks, Facebook pages, twitter accounts and websites – Thanks! http://www.actionstation.org.nz/campaigns/26-for-babies/submission/more-time-for-babies

Union accuses Govt of a cop-out http://www.3news.co.nz/Union-accuses-Govt-of-a-cop-out/tabid/1607/articleID/269121/Default.aspx

Spring Creek: Hundreds of jobs to go http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10836211

EPMU: Miners to travel to Beehive to plead for jobs, communities http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1209/S00296/miners-to-travel-to-beehive-to-plead-for-jobs-communities.htm

Union Report: In this week’s episode: Issue 1 – 6% GDP with 6.8% unemployment rate, how does the economy provide the momentum to create growth and secure jobs? Issue 2 – Are safe staffing and healthy workplaces being ignored for cost cutting? Issue 3 – Does the real cost of private prisons make a mockery of the public private model?

ACC

Exit strategy: Has the ACC been on a determined campaign to “exit” long-term claimants? And does it use select doctors for its medical assessments with one principal aim – to reduce costs? http://www.tv3.co.nz/September-9th—Exit-Strategy/tabid/1343/articleID/79380/Default.aspx#ixzz26h1ElolC

ACC pays specialists $500,000 a year http://www.3news.co.nz/ACC-pays-specialists-500000-a-year/tabid/1607/articleID/269243/Default.aspx

ACC specialist stats revealed by Greens http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10833828

Editorial: ACC assessments need independence http://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/opinion/7684231/Editorial-ACC-assessments-need-independence

Winz joins ACC in firing line for ‘hatchet doctors’ http://www.stuff.co.nz/sunday-star-times/latest-edition/7686104/Winz-joins-ACC-in-firing-line-for-hatchet-doctors

NZ ECONOMY

CTU: Jobless growth http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1209/S00261/jobless-growth.htm

Peter Conway: Inequality is now at its highest level http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/7688627/Inequality-is-now-at-its-highest-level

CTU secretary Peter Conway

Peter Lyons: My top ten economic contradictions and con jobs http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10833333

Critics Gearing up for TPP round in Auckland in December http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1209/S00246/critics-already-gearing-up-for-tpp-round-in-auckland.htm

Parliamentary Services Monthly Economic Review (September) http://www.parliament.nz/NR/rdonlyres/D6DA06E8-0368-46C0-805A-CF6A90016AEF/241896/Sep13.pdf

A ‘Dear John’ letter on trade http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/local-blogs/off-pat/7694565/A-Dear-John-letter-on-trade

Deborah Gleeson: US proposal on Pharmac a bitter pill http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10836007

CTU: Highest Ever Loss of Kiwis to Australia http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1209/S00276/highest-ever-loss-of-kiwis-to-australia.htm

POVERTY & WELFARE DEBATE

Thousands of Kiwi children living in poverty http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/thousands-kiwi-children-living-in-poverty-5099909

Blame game won’t prevent poverty http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/opinion/columnists/chris-trotter/7724070/Blame-game-won-t-prevent-poverty

Welfare protest – back to the cells by Sue Bradford http://www.pundit.co.nz/content/welfare-protest-back-to-the-cells

Gordon Campbell on Paula Bennett’s yawning credibility gap http://gordoncampbell.scoop.co.nz/2012/09/24/gordon-campbell-on-paula-bennetts-yawning-credibility-gap/

Precious little sense on Planet Paula By Tapu Misa http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10834480

Latest reforms an atrocious attack on NZ’s most vulnerable http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1209/S00224/latest-reforms-an-atrocious-attack-on-nzs-most-vulnerable.htm

Gordon Campbell on Paula Bennett’s latest welfare plans and Labour’s exchange rate cynicism http://gordoncampbell.scoop.co.nz/2012/09/12/gordon-campbell-on-paula-bennetts-latest-welfare-plans-and-labours-exchange-rate-cynicism/

Poverty group slams sanctions for beneficiaries http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/poverty-group-slams-sanctions-beneficiaries-5075347

Lunchbox differences in decile 1 and decile 10 schools http://www.3news.co.nz/Lunchbox-differences-in-decile-1-and-decile-10-schools/tabid/367/articleID/269617/Default.aspx

Take a step to end child poverty By Metiria Tūrei http://www.radiolive.co.nz/Take-a-step-to-end-child-poverty/tabid/721/articleID/30738/Default.aspx

‘One strike’ rule for beneficiaries http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10834762

Gareth Morgan: Benefit tightening won’t reduce unemployment http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10836003

Hunger strike goes on http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10835932

NZCCSS Policy Watch September 2012 http://christiansocialservices.blogspot.co.nz/

Welfare ‘reform’ – Paula Bennett’s 143-page second welfare changes bill is out – with a nasty added sting in the tail. http://thestandard.org.nz/welfare-reform/

Arrests at Auckland protest over benefit plans http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/7696512/Arrests-at-Auckland-protest-over-benefit-plans

The Union Report for 24 September 2012 with NZNO’s Hilary Graham-Smith and CTU’s Dr Bill Rosenberg

In this week’s episode:

• Issue 1 – 6% GDP with 6.8% unemployment rate, how does the economy provide the momentum to create growth and secure jobs?
• Issue 2 – Are safe staffing and healthy workplaces being ignored for cost cutting?
• Issue 3 – Does the real cost of private prisons make a mockery of the public private model?

Matt McCarten: Sam goes hungry because no one fights for him

By Matt McCarten
5:30 AM Sunday Sep 23, 2012
A Winz office window was smashed. Photo / APN

I’ve spent most of this week in bed sick, so had the rare opportunity to listen to hours of radio talkback while lying semi-comatose.

Most of us live in an insular world of our own families, our work and our own interests.

The news about other people is what we hear manufactured through our mass media in sometimes sensational soundbites. Rarely does it impact on our lives directly, so it’s relegated to background noise.

Talkback land is different. Real people call with uncensored opinions. It can be rough and banal. Much of it is interesting. At times I felt like I was in a bar or a party somewhere. Most politicians, senior bureaucrats and business leaders have no idea how their bad decisions affect others.

Mid-afternoon on RadioLive I caught up with Sam, a “first-time caller” from Kaikohe. Sam told us he’d smashed the windows of his local Work and Income office with a hammer after the staff refused to give him a food parcel. He has been trespassed from the Winz office.

Sam is a 58-year-old invalid beneficiary. He was run over 20 years ago in a car accident. He lost an eye, an arm and a leg. Since then he’s spent his life in a wheelchair.

He raised his daughter as a sole parent while working in his own takeaway business. He owns his home.

Sam said he didn’t drink, take drugs or smoke. But after paying his fixed living costs, including his mortgage and insurances, there was virtually nothing left for food.

A week ago he had no money for food or petrol. Previously, budgeters had told Sam to go to Winz as he didn’t have enough to live on. So he was forced into setting out on a 4km journey in his electric wheelchair.

He took his bank account details and his budget to request an emergency food voucher. When he got there the first staffer wouldn’t even look at the figures and flatly turned him down. Another staffer agreed that no one could live on Sam’s budget but, as they had given him help twice before, and he wasn’t any different from anybody else, they weren’t allowed to help him.

Sam left humiliated. Only someone who has had the misfortune to rely on Winz can truly understand that.

He took the trip home again and starved for several days. Then a light went off. He made a pact with himself that he wouldn’t eat again until he died or this Government changed its policies so no other person would have to go through what he has had to.

To bring attention to his cause he wheeled back into town with a hammer. He smashed two windows of the Winz office before it opened. He hadn’t lost his temper. It was a political act.

The radio host asked if he was sorry. It kind of missed the point.

When Sam was asked if he had any empathy for the Winz staff, he wryly mentioned that they looked well-fed and comfortable.

The Minister for Social Development, Paula Bennett, revels in her power over the poor. She preens when she’s criticised.

When interviewed about Sam, the best she could come up with was that violence was not acceptable.

Most politicians see what they do as a bit of a game. But political ideals can be the greatest calling where an individual is prepared to die to protect them.

Sam Kuha has unintentionally taken the Gandhi path of the peaceful hunger strike.

I don’t believe for a minute that Sam isn’t serious about taking his hunger strike to finality – it’s now almost two weeks old.

The wife of the US president, Michelle Obama, said earlier this month that people like her (and Bennett) who through good fortune rose above their humble beginnings should always remember that they didn’t do it alone. They had an obligation to not raise the drawbridge behind them.

How fitting that a starving invalid in a wheelchair is pitted against a well-coiffed, plump Cabinet minister. Who represents the real “bludgers”, as Bennett seems to think they are, in our society?

By Matt McCarten

Indian Workers to meet Sunday October 28

Unite Union and the Shaheed Bhagat Singh Charitable Trust have called a meeting on Sunday October 28 to discuss the formation of an Indian Workers Association in New Zealand.

In recent months there has been a lot of discussion about how migrant workers have been taken advantage of by employers in this country. Some of the employers are multi-national companies while others may be small businesses within different ethnic communities.

Often the voice that has been missing in the discussions is that of the migrant workers themselves.

That is why we think it is time for Indian workers in New Zealand to form a group that can speak for themselves. This is an organisation that can understand the different problems that migrant workers face, whether they have PR or not, whether they have a work visa or not, whether they are on a student visa or job search visa.

Unite Union already has many Indian workers as members and delegates in the fast food industry and has offered to assist in organising and assisting other Indian migrant workers in dealing with their problems. this will include education and training in employment rights and advocacy.

All Indian workers and supporters of migrant workers rights are welcome to come along at 2pm, Sunday, October 28, at the Western Springs Garden Community Hall, Western Springs, Auckland.

Mukhtiar Singh,
President, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Charitable Trust (Auckland)
juv143
Ph 021 827 550

Mike Treen
National Director, Unite Union
09 215 3392
029 5254744

Question 14: What was the real reason for the leap in the number of people on benefits during the 1990s?

The fundamental, unanswerable fact is that the huge rise in the number of people forced onto a benefit for periods of their working life is because of the inability of the government or their “free market” to create sufficient work. The rise in benefit numbers matches the fall in full-time work available in the economy.

The Household Labour Force Survey began in March 1986. At the time there were 1,370,400 Full Time jobs which equalled 54.2% of the working age population. By the September quarter 1991 here were 1,169,100 full time jobs equal to 44.1% of the working age population. That was a loss equalling 266,440 full time jobs if the percentage of the working age population with full time jobs had been maintained. It is no coincidence that the number of people on benefits went up by a similar amount. It was not until the end of 1999 that full time job numbers surpassed the March 1986 number although it was still only 47.5% of the working age population. In December 2009 it was 1,673,500 or 49.2% – still behind the 1986 percentage by the equivalent of 5% or 168,500 full time jobs.

People don’t need the “incentive” of benefit cuts to find work. This is a lie peddled to justify still further attacks on the welfare state. In fact, unemployment rose significantly in the two years immediately following the 1991 cuts as the economy was driven into a deeper recession by the cuts themselves.

We also need to always remember that there is a constant and huge turnover of people on benefits. During the recession of the early 1990s the average time on benefits did increase. But for even a longer-term benefit like the DPB, the increase was from only three years to three years and nine months between 1982 and 1996. 40 percent of people went off the DPB within a year of entry and only 25 percent remained in receipt of a benefit for at least six years. The average time on the unemployment benefit is only a matter of months.

The main victims of a recession are also the main beneficiaries in any economic upturn. The biggest falls in unemployment during the partial job recovery in the mid 1990s was for the longer-term unemployed with those registered two years or more declining by 54 percent between December 93 and late 96. The Maori and Pacific unemployment rates also dropped dramatically during the upturn.

As the upturn continued in the 1990s the number on the Domestic Purposes Benefit also trended down from a high of 115,000 in 1998 to a low of 97,000 in 2008. The growth of DPB numbers during the 1980s and 1990s was a product of fundamental changes in the nature of marriage and the family in New Zealand society. These changes were driven by the growing inability of working men to support a wife and family (even if she worked part time) because of the major decline in male wages and employment during that period. The decline in full time male employment was dramatic – from 901,000 in March 1986 to 748,000 by September 1992. Many of the so-called cheats are really just couples trying to cope with an impossible situation.

It is ironic that because of the introduction of in work tax payments to working single parents and low income families there is little or no savings from a person moving off the DPB and into part time work. Because of this fact even the hard hearted treasury officials advised against the work test regime on sole parents because the costs outweighed the benefits. The Regulatory Impact Statement from the Ministry of Social Development that accompanied the proposed welfare changes also conceded: “There is no research currently available which accurately quantifies the size of the behavioural response from these changes in policies. This prevents estimates, with the degree of accuracy required, from being made of the number of people who will move from benefit to work over a year, as a result of the proposed changes.”

It remains a scandal that nearly 10 percent of the working age population is directly dependent on a benefit at any one time even if only half of these receive the benefit longer than a year. However, the attempt to shift the blame for this state of affairs onto the victim to justify ever more degrading restrictions must be rejected. With unemployment endemic, cuts to benefits force workers to compete ever harder for the available jobs forcing wages down even further. If the government gets us to look on “solo mums”, “dole bludgers”, and other receivers of benefits as a pariah “underclass” then they will have succeeded in their goal of breaking down the social solidarity we need to struggle against the social crisis we face.

(Part of a series of extracts from “Exposing Right Wing Lies” by Mike Treen, Unite National Director)

Question 13: Isn’t it necessary for there to be a big gap between benefit levels and wages to encourage people to get jobs?

This ignores the reality that during the decades of the 1960s and 70s benefits were higher than they are today relative to the average wage, yet the numbers on any sort of benefit other than for old age was tiny.

A Labour Department report notes that “On 31 March 1952, only two people were receiving the Unemployment Benefit, the lowest end-of-year number in the post-war period. The first substantial rise was in 1967/68, when numbers jumped from 230 to 4,424 before dropping in subsequent years. The number jumped again ten years later, rising from 3,651 to 17,497 in 1978. It has risen continuously since (apart from a pause in the mid 1980s) to a peak of 181,236 on 30 June 1993.” During the entire period of very low unemployment benefits were significantly higher as a percentage of the average wage than they are today.

The fact there is no evidence to connect the level of benefits to people’s willingness to work was confirmed in a 1988 study on the DPB by the Social Welfare Department. It noted that numbers on the benefit in New Zealand had risen at a time when its value fell in relation to the average female wage. It also explained that Sweden had the highest proportion of working mothers (86 percent) and also the highest benefit levels. “It appears the Swedish solo mothers do not require a great financial incentive to take up employment, only sufficient reason to do so.” A central difference between Sweden and New Zealand is the broad availability of affordable, quality childcare, which remains a central barrier to sole parents working in New Zealand.

If there was ever a scene which confirmed that there is nothing voluntary about being unemployed it was the sight in January of 2500 workers lining up at dawn for minimum wage jobs on offer at Countdown in Manukau City in January 2010.

Jobless queue outside Countdown store in Manukau, Auckland

(Part of a series of extracts from “Exposing Right Wing Lies” by Mike Treen, Unite National Director)

Inequality is now at its highest level

By Peter Conway

Dominion Post 17/9/12

OPINION: There are serious questions about the competence of the Government’s economic management. This is not confined to the asset-sales process.

The Government tries to portray itself as strong on economic management. In fact, the evidence suggests otherwise.

Unemployment remains persistently high, with 271,200 jobless and another 109,500 people seeking additional hours of work.

The outflow to Australia has now reached record levels, with 53,900 leaving in the last year (or 39,800 if we subtract those who returned).

Inequality is now at its highest level. A recent Social Development Ministry survey shows that the median household income fell by 3.0 per cent over the 2010/11 year. This is the first time the median household income has fallen since the early 1990s.

Income for the bottom two-thirds of households fell, mainly from lower employment income. But average household income rose 1.1 per cent because high incomes rose. And two out of five of the 270,000 children in poverty are in households with a waged worker.

Traditionally a National government will focus on reducing the size of government, tax cuts for those on high incomes, privatisation, reduced work rights and attacks on beneficiaries.

Some of the people have changed since the 1990s, and the branding is different – but the prescription is the same.

Take the tax switch, which was actually more of a swindle. The logic of less tax on income and more tax on property made sense but the implementation was dreadful.

As a result of the tax switch, inequality widened, a fiscal hole of more than $1 billion was opened up despite claims the switch would be revenue neutral, there was an inflation spike to reach over 5 per cent and there was no stimulus to the economy.

The tax cuts in the last term of the Government resulted in the take-home pay gap between someone earning $30,000 a year and $150,000 a year widening by $135 a week. This is extremely poor economic management. It is also grossly unfair.

In tough times we see what the priorities for government really are. At first it looked like jobs would be such a priority. The Jobs Summit of early 2009 sent a strong signal that the impact of the global financial crisis would be looked at through a jobs lens.

But within months the focus had switched almost exclusively to public debt. The measures that the Government brought in to boost employment were welcome – but too small, and short-lived. Unemployment is higher worldwide as a result of the global financial crisis.

New Zealand’s ranking for unemployment was regularly among the lowest in the OECD (and was actually lowest in 2005) but is now 14th. The Government has not prioritised jobs to the same extent as many other OECD countries.

I am reluctant to be critical over the response of the Government to the Canterbury earthquakes as the overwhelming scale and complexity of what is required would test any government. However, I am critical of how the Government has implemented policies that clearly worsen income inequality, and has failed to prioritise jobs. There is also an issue about framing of the economic debate.

While the last term of Government was focused on responding to the global financial crisis and fiscal consolidation, in this term there is a more obvious effort on a wider economic framework. However, the framing is by now severely constrained and politically motivated. Gone is a reference to sustainable development or economic development.

Even the economic growth agenda has been abandoned for what is now called the ‘‘business growth agenda’’. This framing is important. It sends a signal that business growth is what really matters and that all other benefits flow from business success.

The six-part agenda on capital, exports, infrastructure, innovation, skilled and safe workplaces and natural resources includes some sensible initiatives such as the Advanced Technology Institute.

However, essentially the framing is that the Government will assist businesses to become competitive, and while this will include some initiatives that will add value, it will also mean, for instance, that employment law is changed to make it harder for workers in unions to get wage increases. The Government needs to recognise that a narrowly focused business growth agenda is no substitute for a decent plan of how to lift economic performance in everyone’s interests.

Peter Conway is secretary of the Council of Trade Unions.

Labour Letter: September 2012, Vol. 3 No. 9

National Labour News

A new survey showing New Zealanders are generally very satisfied with public services should be seen as a tribute to public service workers rather than a justification for current and future cutbacks, said the Public Service Association. The Kiwis Count survey of more than 1,000 New Zealanders conducted earlier this year found high levels of satisfaction with government services particularly through greater access to online transactional services. PSA National Secretary Brenda Pilott said maintaining the high quality of public services has come at a price for workers. "Public servants have been battling the odds with the government’s public service staffing cap leading to the loss of at least 2500 jobs since National took office," she said. She cited serious staff shortages resulting from budget cuts and endless restructurings which have put "huge" pressure on existing staff. "It’s clear that public service workers are working hard to offset the effect of job losses and funding cuts and it would be nice to see the government acknowledging that," she said.

The NZ Rail and Maritime Transport Union expressed outrage that the Government plans to spend $12.3 billion on New Zealand’s land transport system over the next three years while expecting the rail industry "to pay its own way" by becoming self sufficient in ten years. "In doing so, the government is expecting rail to compete with a road transport industry heavily subsidised by taxpayers. It’s wrong, and it isn’t going to work," RMTU General Secretary Wayne Butson said. "A modern transport infrastructure for New Zealand means a commitment to a quality rail network as a key part of the logistics supply chain, not just roads." The union said some of the funds, which will come from increases in petrol excise duty and road user charges, should be spent on maintaining the country’s railway network. "No one would realistically expect that road users meet the full cost of the national roading network," Butson said. "But it makes no sense to, on the one hand, heavily subsidise road users, and then to take a totally different approach to rail."

The current decline in workers’ rights and conditions will only change when people’s "deference" to employers and the state is overcome, declared Council of Trade Union president Helen Kelly. Kelly spoke at a lecture in Otago commemorating the Rev Rutherford Waddell, the 19th century Dunedin Presbyterian minister who inspired social and labour reforms. Kelly told the audience of 200 that conditions have improved for workers since Waddell’s time, but those conditions were on the decline today for many workers. She noted workplace deaths are on the rise, 300,000 workers are at or near the minimum wage and permanent jobs are undermined by contracting-out and casualisation. She said attacks on workers are increasing, and she predicted public sector workers will be the next to be portrayed as "overpaid, lazy and incompetent."

Helen Kelly speaking in Dunedin

Unite resolved a dispute with Burger King after the union accused the fast food chain of unfairly treating migrant workers and underpaying its staff. Unite national director Mike Treen said the details of the agreement will remain "confidential" but he added the union would recommend that New Zealanders patronize the fast-food chain. Treen said union members would be "very pleased with the outcome". "In addition the parties will work in good faith to promptly resolve any individual employee cases," he said. Treen said the union was "confident" that Burger King was committed to building a positive environment for the workers. A joint union-company notice will be posted in Burger King stores followed by a letter from the union explaining the outcome.

National, Economic & Political Events

Ministry of Social Development recently released a report that showed inequality in New Zealand is at its highest level ever. The report also shows that the average income has fallen for the first time since its low point in the early 1990’s. Meanwhile, the Labour Cost Index last month revealed a 0.5 per cent increase in the three months prior to June, indicating 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. LCI statistics showed that only 56 per cent of workers received a raise to address the cost of living or market relativities in the last year. The combination of income reports gave impetus to labour’s campaign to raise the minimum wage to $15 and to the Living Wage Campaign.

The Service and Food Workers Union’s Living Wage campaign picked up key support as several leading members of the Green Party joined the effort. Green Party industrial relations spokesperson Denise Roche last month said a living wage is needed because of the growing gap between rich and poor in New Zealand. She, along with other Green MPs, including Co-leader Dr. Russel Norman, joined the Aug. 30 launch of Living Wage New Zealand in Wellington. (Labour Party has long supported the living wage.) The union explained that the campaign focuses on combating poverty through advocating for better pay rates for low paid workers. "The minimum wage at $13.50 is too low. It needs to be based on what people actually need in order to have a decent life, not on the whim of cabinet and business," said Ms. Roche. She said the recent "small increases" in the minimum wage under the National Government have "done very little" to help New Zealanders make ends meet. "Many of those on the minimum wage work long hours and extra shifts to make ends meet. Lifting wages for these workers would make a huge difference to the quality of their lives," said Ms Roche.

The Labour and Green parties, Grey Power and the Auckland University Students Association pushed forward on plans to collect enough signatures to force a non-binding referendum on the sale of state assets. But Prime Minister John Key said the partial asset sales will go forward regardless of whether or not opposition parties gather enough signatures for a referendum. "We had the biggest referendum we’re going to have – which was the general election … Partial asset sales was the major issue that was debated during the election campaign and National got an overwhelming majority going to the public with that policy," Key said. Labour Party leader David Shearer warned that outstanding issues involving several state-owned enterprises due to be partially sold could set back the sale process. He noted Solid Energy, for example, recently reported a $40.2 million loss and Maori water rights issues involving Mighty River Power are unresolved.

Green Party leader Russell Norman and Labour Party leader David Shearer

International Labour

Members of Australia’s Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) last month walked off their jobs and blocked the entrances to construction sites in a dispute with developer Grocon. In Melbourne, police confronted some 1,000 CFMEU members as they escorted Grocon employees past picket lines to their offices. Another 200 workers in Sidney struck as part of the dispute. NSW union organiser Darren Taylor said a key part of the Melbourne dispute was about the appointment of shop and safety stewards to represent the workforce. The workers in Sidney reportedly wanted to show solidarity with Melbourne workers and also to highlight safety issues at their worksite. Recent mediation by Fair Work Australia has failed to resolve the dispute. CFMEU Victorian president Ralph Edwards, meanwhile, said the blockade would continue until all of the issues were resolved.

Fiji Mine Workers Union reported that former Vatukoula goldminers who have been on strike for the last 21 years have yet to receive any resolution of their grievances despite promises of redress. The union made submissions to the country’s Constitution Commission in Vatukoula on August 31. "The reason we are making these submissions to the commission is because in 2007, when the current government took over, we were promised resolution of our strike by the government representatives at a meeting held at the Fiji Human Rights Commission on 23rd April 2007," said union president Josefa Sadreu. But he said no action was taken despite repeated requests seeking updates. In 2009, the Fiji Mine Workers Union formally withdrew the case from the Human Rights Commission and sent the complaint directly to the International Labour Organisation in Geneva.

The USA’s AFL-CIO used Labour Day, a national holiday, to launch Labour 2012 political action campaign in support of re-electing President Barak Obama and other labour-endorsed candidates. Workers celebrated the event with parades, rallies, picnics and demonstrations across the nation. According to the AFL-CIO, the Labour Day campaign is part of a broader, long-term initiative by America’s unions to send the message that "Work Connects Us All" and "to help provide a voice for all people who work." Working families participated in a national grassroots canvass across the country prior to the Republican National convention held Aug. 28-30 and visited an estimated 640,000 homes in 23 states. "Working families talking to their neighbours, co-workers, friends and families is kryptonite to the radical right wing agenda," said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. "We’ll be breaking through the noise of misleading ads paid for by wealthy special interests, and letting voters hear from the people they trust most on the economic issues they care about. That’s how working families will win this election and lift up the middle class."

Restorers of historic Angkor Wat signed their first collective agreement on August 31. The pact should set a precedent for Cambodia’s construction industry, union supporters said. More than 120 workers, who formed the Angkor Preservation Workers Union in 2010, led a two-year campaign for insurance that would cover injury and illness, union rights, wages and other benefits before their employer, the World Monuments Fund (WMF), agreed to the pact which also increased wages from $79 to $90 per month.. The WMF, based in New York, has been in Cambodia for more than 20 years and preserves the iconic Angkor Wat and other temples such as Phnom Bakheng and Preah Khan. "This is such an important day. We’ve witnessed a big international organisation sit down with a small independent Cambodian trade union," said Dave Welsh, country director of the American Centre for International Labour Solidarity, which supported the workers’ efforts.

Regional and Local Union News

Fifty Massey University cleaners have the right to bargain for non-monetary redundancy entitlements with international cleaning company OCS despite their contract excluding them from redundancy payments, the Supreme Court ruled last month. The court said such entitlements could be training or job seeking assistance. The decision was a clear victory for the workers and the Service and Foodworkers union which filed the suit. The union explained that OCS slashed the cleaners’ hours in 2010 after it won a contract to clean the university’s Palmerston North and Wellington campuses. ”They gave the cleaners notice that their working hours would be reduced to 27 a week and their working year cut to 31 weeks,” union national secretary John Ryall said. According to the union, OCS sacked them when the cleaners asked for redundancy entitlements and only reinstated them when they signed up to the new hours of work. ”The Supreme Court victory is very important, not just for the Massey University cleaners, but for vulnerable workers throughout New Zealand," Ryall said.

A proposal by the Canterbury Employers Chamber of Commerce to sell off Christchurch City assets to help fund the Christchurch rebuild was soundly rejected by New Zealand’s unions. Marty Braithwaite, the unions’ earthquake recovery spokesperson, said the commercial returns from assets such as the Lyttelton Port Company, Orion and the Airport had been instrumental in ensuring that rates for Christchurch residents have remained some of the lowest in the country. He said the Chamber of Commerce’s call was "short-sighted." Braithwaite said that unions would oppose the sale or partial privatisation of strategic assets, adding that the assets had been built up by generations of ratepayers and would continue to make an important economic and social contribution to the city. In submissions to both the Christchurch Central City Plan and the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority Draft Recovery Strategy, the unions argued that the revenue generated by CCHL would be more important in the future than ever before.

The Union Report with Dr Alistair Shaw and Chris Trotter (17/9/12)

Issue 1: A new survey shows that bullying in the public service is rife – do we have a bullying work culture and what do we do about it?
Issue 2: Does labour skills shortage and rising unemployment suggest the 90 day right to sack law has failed and is now part of the problem?
Issue 3: Is the Government doing enough to tackle poverty?

Coming up 24th Bill Rosenberg from the CTU and the NZNO; 1st October SFWU & Actors Equity; 8th October Laila Harre;

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Matt McCarten: Everyone in unionland smells a rat at the port – Best of Political Analysis – NZ Herald News

By Matt McCarten

5:30 AM Sunday Sep 16, 2012

The prospect of contracting resulted in bitterness. Photo / Nigel Marple

In two weeks the wharfies union’s employment agreement lapses. The term of the document actually expired a year ago, but legally if a new agreement isn’t reached then it stays in force, protecting employees’ wages and conditions, for another 12 months.

On the 30th of this month union workers will default to individual contracts and then the Ports of Auckland could, according to my sources, restart their failed contracting-out campaign.

Most Aucklanders would have assumed the whole ports lockout earlier this year had been resolved months ago. After all, when the board’s bungling resulted in them having to lift the lockout of their workers you’d think they would have learned their lesson.

The board’s ideologue, Rob Campbell, spat the dummy and resigned. If the chairman and the chief executive had taken any responsibility for their behaviour they should have resigned as well, except that after the millions of dollars they cost the company they might have discovered no sane entity would have touched them with a barge pole.

The unfortunate fact is we’ve only had an industrial reprieve because the union agreed to go into good-faith bargaining with the company under the supervision of the Labour Department’s chief facilitator.

Despite endless meetings, it’s gone nowhere. No self-respecting union would ever willingly agree to contract their members’ jobs. However, the union tells me they have met almost every claim by the management to give the port the flexibility they said it needed. The union says there is no reason not to settle and get on with the job. But the company always finds reasons for further delay.

I can only conclude the board is being pushed by other interests and that there has been a deliberate strategy to pretend to negotiate and let the clock run out. If the delays are genuine then the port could merely agree to have their existing union contract roll over until they settle. It speaks volumes that they aren’t.

Because the union protections end at the end of the month, the port will be able to employ new staff or contractors on less money and inferior work conditions. This puts us right back into a dispute.

Everyone in unionland smells a rat. When Auckland councillors tried this week to seek accountability from the board, or even request any information, they were given the brush-off. The head of the council-controlled organisation, Gary Swift, said that his board was the port owner, not the council.

He was unable to provide any details of what the port dispute has cost the ratepayers, or even what they’ve spent on it. Then with a straight face he said he couldn’t interfere in the port management and didn’t think there was any real problem.

When Rodney Hide set up business boards to run our assets he said the structure would make it more focused on business and accountable for performance. But here’s the top bureaucrat saying he can’t or won’t say whether there was any financial impact on the ports when it was in dispute. Any self-respecting business owner would sack their manager if they gave that reply to a question.

Unfortunately for Swift, an email he had sent to the ports management was read to the council. In part says: "The last thing we need is political interference. If they sense that ACIL is not on top of what’s happening they may interfere and it may not go the way we want (the vote 12 to 9 was not a strong endorsement of our position)."

I wonder who he meant by "our position". You can’t get any clearer that our well-remunerated bureaucrats treat our democracy with contempt and run their own agendas on our dime.

In two weeks’ time they’ll be ready to crank up the dispute with the wharfies again in our name and using our resources. We will be expected to sit in the dark and be fed whatever they choose to dish up.

Fellow columnist Rodney Hide wrote a few weeks ago how pleased he was about how things turned out. For his former backers it certainly has.

By Matt McCarten | Email Matt