Manufacturing Closures: A Race to the Bottom
The Sunbeam Corp factory in Palmerston North is closing after over 20 years production in Palmerston North. The seasonal staff will finish their season on June 25th and the plant will close shortly after. 122 workers are being made redundant and 34 of them are permanent staff.
The plant manager Craig Dias said “We are making products in a competitive open global market and it is uneconomic to continue to make these type of appliances in New Zealand if they aren't aimed at a niche market.”
Craig Dias praised the local media, business, and personnel agencies, “The local business industry has helped with job placement and most of the staff have placements already.”
When asked what the Government could have done to alleviate the company's situation he said “There are only two things that could have been done; one was to use tariffs, the other was tax relief.”
There has been a pattern of closures in the manufacturing industry since the New Zealand government started pursuing a free trade agenda. Click Clack Ltd, another Palmerston North factory, is also ceasing to manufacture goods, although its head office will still be there. It is estimated that over 30 jobs will be lost. Like Sunbeam, the company has been working hard to relocate workers to other plants, and to other jobs in the Manawatu. While there have been a number of Regional Development projects which are expected to provide some jobs in the Manawatu they will not help ease the impact of 150 job losses.
George Larkins from the Manufacturing and Construction Union (Wellington Branch Secretary) who has members in the factory said “The workers are devastated. They aren't in highly paid skilled jobs, they will find it very hard to get work in the Manawatu. The main cause is government policy, which, for example, has allowed the dollar to strengthen beyond what exporters have budgeted for.”
When asked what he would like to say to ministers like Jim Sutton who promote a free trade agenda, Larkins said “It is all very well to be looking at the big picture, but come up here and look at the devastation you are causing these workers, and tell them why you think this is acceptable.”
As Robert Reid from the Clothing Workers Union said “The closure of the Sunbeam factory is one more example of the closures that have been happening since the Rogernomics period of free trade policies that started in 1984.”
There is controversy over the much heralded New Zealand/China Free Trade agreement. The government seeks more access for New Zealand's primary products, essentially farming produce. Rod Donald from the Green Party has criticised Helen Clark directly for not pushing for fair trade and raising the awareness of China's “awful labour and environmental record” when she signed the first document towards the agreement last week.
With the majority of clothing and manufacturing goods coming from China, the New Zealand/China Free Trade Agreement effectively makes any industry tariffs completely redundant.
Craig Dias from Sunbeam did not believe that the Free Trade Agreement was critical to the closing of the plant. However, as ARENA (Action Research Education Network of Aotearoa) researcher Bill Rosenburg said "All these free trade agreements certainly have a racheting down effect on our economy, preventing us from now or in the future ever supporting a New Zealand manufacturing industry, including textiles and clothing. For the Sunbeam factory it might not have been what closed the factory, but it denied hope of any relief in the future."
Political parties like the Alliance Party and Green Party have worked hard to keep tariffs in place, including the placement of a freeze on tariff reductions in the clothing industry from 2000-2005, and to avoid free trade agreements. They propose instead to look to fair trade deals which focus on avoiding exploitation of workers and the environment in all participating countries. However the Labour government seems to have entirely ignored the concerns of the local community and political advocates for caution and restraint.
There are growing concerns that a tiny minority saying that they oppose free trade is fuelling anti-Asian sentiment. Unwelcome newcomers to the free trade debate have been the neo-nazi National Front who are planning a demonstration outside the plant when it closes. A Wellington activist who observed a recent demonstration of skinheads outside the Chinese Embassy said “They say they support workers rights, yet none of them were in a union, instead they spent their time making racist and homophobic comments. The politics of the National Front are entirely based on hate, they were outside the embassy because of their hatred of people who aren’t European, not because of any free trade agreement. Helen Clark's house is just down the road, place the blame where it is due. ”
As Robert Reid from the Clothing Workers Union stated “New Zealand trade negotiators are negotiating away the NZ manufacturing and textiles industry, in order to get access for primary goods. There's no point in blaming the Chinese government, Chinese workers, or fuelling anti-China hysteria, because in the end we're doing it to ourselves.”
Comments
Economic nationalism is no solution
The decline of manufacturing and the regions is an important issue and credit to John for raising it here. However I can't agree with the proposals the article makes.
The article mentions two options to protect jobs in NP. But neither tariffs nor tax reliefs offers a way forward.
Both measures would be aimed at making it impossible for foreign manufacturers to compete with locally-based manufacturers like the Sunbeam Corp. In the short term, this would result in the retention of the Sunbeam workers' jobs. But it would also lead to the loss of the jobs of a far larger and - let's face it - far poorer group of workers in China.
Even if we forget about the Chinese and focus only on the welfare of NZ workers, the sort of measures this article is calling for still do not make sense.
If NZ consistently created tariffs and built a fortress economy the larger economies it trades with would retaliate, and this would be utterly disastrous, because NZ is a small economy which is largely owned offshore is dependent on (agricultural) exports.
Without access to the domestic markets of countries like China the NZ agricultural sector would quickly collapse, and so would domestic demand for the products of local manufacturers 'protected' by tariffs.
In countries like the US and the EU (let's call the EU a country), trade unionists can serve their memberships' short-term interests by winning them economic nationalist policies from government. It's a terrible price to pay, because it means dumping on workers in other countries, but it can sometimes bring benefits to a privileged 'labour aristocracy' represented by the bureaucracy of the trade union movement.
But since NZ lacks the strong national capitalist class and the huge domestic market of a state like the US economic nationalism is not in even the short-term, selfish interests of NZ workers. It cannot be anything other than a road to ruin.
For the same reason, there is almost no chance that any economic nationalist policy agenda will ever be introduced in NZ.
The NZ economy has been well and truly internationalised, and the local manufacturing sector of the capitalist class is incredibly weak in comparison with the international capital floating about the place and the 'comprador bourgeoisie' which administers that capital.
That's why successive NZ governments have been incredibly uninterested in fostering local manufacturing. They are much more interested in making the place a sort of massive holiday resort for Californians. Alright, that's an exaggeration, but all of the new 'industries' flaunted by the Labour government - tourism, IT, movies, niche farming, English teaching - are post-industrial, and will do nothing to change the nature of the NZ economy.
Even where there is some interest in building up local industry, the NZ capitalist class and its state do not have the resources to do anything meaningful. Jim Anderton respresents the last gasp of Muldoon-style economic nationalism, and yet his proposals for industrial development in neglected regions of the country fell flat, because they required money the state did not have.
Anderton was reduced to begging MNC Carter Holt Harvey to spend $300 million on a mill on the East Coast. CHH could have made a big profit off the wall of wood, but they told Anderton to bugger off because they reckoned they could make a little more in Japan. Anderton wrung his hands.
Senior trade unionists like Robert Reid often criticise revolutionary socialists as hopelessly unrealistic, and promote their own economic nationalism as the pragmatic face of the left. But nothing could be less realistic than economic nationalism, in NZ at the beginning of the 21st century.
Have run out of time but I'll give the positive alternative to economic nationalism tommorrow.
Re: Manufacturing Closures: A Race to the Bottom
How long before the blinkers come off? The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting, not only poorer but more numerous. Dont ally your self with the "left-wing" of the mindless zombie arm created by the would be wardens of the global gulag.
From the New Zealnd National Front's Principle of Polices:
6. Finance & Banking
No nation can be sovereign unless it has control over own banking system. If private banks can create credit as an interest bearing debt for profit, a State bank can create credit as a public service at low interest.
The Reserve Bank must be brought back under the authority of the State, as originally intended, with the function of creating credit at low interest, issued for public works and for private enterprise and mortgage finance through the Kiwi Bank.
The First Labour Government nationalised the Reserve Bank and funded public works such as State Housing with Reserve Bank credit issued at 1% interest. We will follow this precedent.
7. Economy
We stand for national economic planning and reject the so-called “free market revolution” wrought by the misnamed “Labour” Government under Lange and Roger Douglas. If the State does not have the prerogative to oversee the direction of the economy then no party can honestly promise full employment and social security, since private business interests have the power to dis-invest and to relocate to cheap labour markets in the Third World. Private interests can therefore sabotage a nation’s economy at will.
Despite what the Marxists claim, there is nothing “inevitable” about “class struggle”. Labouring, entrepreneurial and intellectual classes are all interdependent, and cannot exist alone. Our economic, financial and social reforms will eliminate class divisions and create national unity on the basis of social justice.
We stand for a strong manufacturing sector. This has been deliberately destroyed by cheap imports in order to restructure New Zealand’s economic so that it can fit into an Asian and ultimately a world economic structure. Our manufacturing base can be restored by a combination of import tariffs, State low interest loans, and raising incomes that increase as production increases, thereby ensuring a protected and expanding home market.
Essential utilises such as transport and communications must be returned to the State, on the basis that they are strategic assets apart from any economic considerations.
Only citizens will be able to hold shares in New Zealand enterprises.
Wherever practical, employees will be shareholders and have representation at management level.
We will act against interlocking directorships and company take-overs to reverse the trend towards the concentration of economic power into increasingly fewer hands.
We will withdraw from the world trade system dominated by global corporations and international finance, and will implement barter in order that our surplus agricultural and manufactured products can find an expanded overseas market. This will mean, for example, that nations that do not possess the international credit to purchase food, yet do possess essential resources such as oil can exchange those resources for our food surpluses.
Work is futile unless one has both the means and the time to enjoy the fruits of one’s labour. With expanding technology we should be looking towards reducing working hours and the retirement age; yet the reverse is happening. The forty hour week is increasingly fading out of sight. Technical innovation and job share should substantially reduce working hours, as has been the case in France in recent years. Retirement age should be lowered to 55 to enable one to enjoy a substantial number of years beyond work.
8. Green Nation
We desire that New Zealand become again a rural nation, where farming is a central focus.
Agriculture will fully benefit from our banking reforms, whereas at present debt repayment is a primary factor in farm expenditure.
Agriculture should find large new markets in the Third World, once a system of barter is instituted.
Agriculture can also be greatly diversified for the growth of crops for the production of organic fuels, thereby contributing to our self-sufficiency.
We shall encourage organic farming through tax incentives and State loans.
We oppose the adulteration of food with additives and the despoliation of the land with chemical fertilisers.
We oppose the global monopolies that are taking control of various facets of agriculture. Genetic modification by corporate interests has for example made varieties of seeds sterile so that food production is now reliant on a few global corporations.
The rural character of communities should be maintained, and urban sprawl halted.
We believe in the return of the ideal of every family owning its own home on a section that is not crammed to maximum capacity like some Asian shanty. We view the trend towards high rise apartments, inner city living and ‘in-filling’ with homes having minimal living space as a deplorable reflection of the artificial state in which we live.
We believe that our flora and fauna should be preserved ahead of financial gain.
Only New Zealand citizens should be able to buy New Zealand land.
Join the struggle for this young nations future; join the NZNF NOW!
National Front has no solutions
The National Front's economic nationalist programme is actually far less credible than that of the likes of ARENA, because it lacks any kind of explanation as to how NZ would get rid of its export products.
Left economic nationalists have mixed their advocacy of a protected economy at home with calls for a new international economic order in place of the system administered by the likes of the WTO and the IMF.
In place of the globalisation being driven by the US some of them have advocated the creation of new trade blocs which are protected by tariffs and are fairer to developing countries.
For NZ's left nationalists a crucial model is Hugo Chavez, who is trying to create a strong national capitalism in Venezuela and to forge an anti-US Latin American trade bloc that would reduce dependency on foreign capital and provide a huge market for goods manufactured in Latin America.
Trotskyists argue that the left nationalists who look to Chavez et al are unrealistic, because the capitalist classes in semi-colonial countries are too weak to challenge the capitalist classes in the imperialist countries. They are hardwired into the international circuit of capital and end up as local managers for foreign capital. If they go 'rogue', as Allende and now Chavez have done, then they get dealt to by the US.
Breaking out of the circuit of capital would mean getting rid of the rule of the market and establishing a planned economy based on socialised property, but the local capitalist class in semi-colonial countries by definition has no interest in this. Hence the importance of the working class and working class independence.
Defeating the US in places like Venezuela therefore depends not on Chavez, but on workers acting independently of him. The coup of April 2002 was defeated by working class mass mobilisation, not the progressive part of the army, which sat on its hands, or Chavez, who sat in prison.
But at least the left nationalists have a coherent programme for restructuring NZ's trade as well as its domestic economy. The NF, by contrast, advocates a sort of self-sufficiency which has never existed in this country. The NF says it would build a big domestic market for manufactured goods here and 'barter' surplus production, by which I take it they mean agricultural production.
The reforms of the 80s and 90s severely damaged the manufacturing sector here, but that sector was never very important to the economy as a whole. NZ has always been dependent on the export of agricultural products.
The postwar boom and later the energy crises of the 70s made possible a limited amount of industrialisation, mainly related to primary production, but there was never anything like the explosion in manufacturing seen in similar countries like Argentina after WW2.
Like all fascist groups the NF advocates a corporatist state capable of coordinating the efforts of capital and labour and eliminating class and social conflict (or rather exporting suppressed social conflict by starting genocidal wars).
The NF would found its corporatist superstate by nationalising the banking system and using it to dispense cheap credit to local manufacturers, who would then be able to produce competitively for local markets (brown 'labour front' unions that never went on strike would be help too, by reducing labour costs!).
But the NF's programme immediately runs into problems. Kiwi Bank is the only locally-owned nationwide bank here, and it is hardly a serious bank, more a charity service for the real banks that can't be bothered dealing with tinpot clients. So the NF would have to nationalise the banking system in NZ. That'd mean taking on not only foreign capitalism but also the dominant section of the NZ capitalist class, which earns its bread administering foreign capital. But the NF promises to coordinate capital and labour and eliminate class struggle!
Even if the NF were able to take over the banking system and start dispensing cheap loans to manufacturers, they would face the problem of the place of the agricultural sector in a self-sufficient economy. Without export markets the sector would quickly collapse, and another section of the capitalist class would be up in arms! The rural working class might also have something to say.
Ironically, the only way that the NF could make its proposals for self-sufficiency more credible would be to advocate massive immigration to NZ - a massive increase in population would at least create a larger domestic market!
In the past fascists have advocated an international white economic system, but that option isn't open to the NF, because it is the mostly-white imperialist countries which are driving the globalisation which the NF wants to oppose in its reactionary way (indeed, most of the factories behind China's boom are owned not by Chinese but by Europeans and Americans).
Racism is irrational, and the NF's racism has produced an irrational economic programme. It would be a tragedy if young NZers angered at globalisation and job losses bought into this irrationalism, and turned their backs on their real ally - the international working class.
Re: Manufacturing Closures: A Race to the Bottom
Oh look. Someone on the left writes a well-researched article about the Palmerston North closures, actually talking to some of the people involved.
The National Front, despite pushing this as one of their vehicles to try and show they're "fascists who /care/" do nothing but pule on about it and show up in front if the Chinese Enbassy wearing white power t-shirts and spouting racist bullshit.
Wonder who really gives a fuck?
Re: Manufacturing Closures: A Race to the Bottom
Oh look. Someone on the left writes a well-researched article about the Palmerston North closures, actually talking to some of the people involved.
The National Front, despite pushing this as one of their vehicles to try and show they're "fascists who /care/" do nothing but pule on about it and show up in front of the Chinese Enbassy wearing white power t-shirts and spouting bullshit.
Wonder who really gives a fuck?
Re: Manufacturing Closures: A Race to the Bottom
Oh look. Someone on the left writes a well-researched article about the Palmerston North closures, actually talking to some of the people involved.
The National Front, despite pushing this as one of their vehicles to try and show they're "fascists who /care/" do nothing but pule on about it and show up in front of the Chinese Enbassy wearing white power t-shirts and spouting bullshit.
Wonder who really gives a fuck?
Re: Manufacturing Closures: A Race to the Bottom
new international economic order
the creation of new trade blocs
What an insidious schemer you are. This is the hallmark of you and your capitalist masters push towards globalisation and the creation of serf states. We know your lies, we have had to live with your masquerading pretences for too long. No more.
Re: Manufacturing Closures: A Race to the Bottom
"What an insidious schemer you are. This is the hallmark of you and your capitalist masters push towards globalisation and the creation of serf states. We know your lies, we have had to live with your masquerading pretences for too long. No more."
We were here 350 years before you with the Diggers and other movements against developing capitalism, and we will still be here many years after your thoughts of hatred and fear are dead and forgotten.
It is only through uniting people can we overcome the elite, not by hating each other on the basis of our differences. Racism, sexism and homophobia are tools of the elite to keep us divided. You and the National Front are tools of the bosses, working to ensure capitalism rules over us all for another 500 years.
when labour lacks the courage...
I appreciate John's comprehensive factory closure article, and would like to add just one point - there is life beyond alleviation.
John rightly notes that the government has not done what it might have to "alleviate" the problem. Temporary alleviation is all that any capitalist administrating government can do in these situations. The closure and removal of factories under capitalism is done at the dictates of capitalism pursuing maximum profits, and as long as the system exists, workers will suffer accordingly. Labour mps are only too well aware of this, and while they line up to be photoed at the opening of new enterprises, they almost always all hide away when the places are shut. They know they have nothing to offer.
Top New Zealand union leaders are also aware of these realities, but, unlike many of their counterparts overseas. won't tell workers the truth: capitalism is the problem and we must get rid of it. This reluctance of union leaders to face the truth is costing us. When organised labour lacks the courage to openly oppose capitalism, reactionary alternatives crawl out to fill the space. The whining of the facist jackal would never be heard if the union lion was roaring properly.
Manufacturing Closures: A Race to the Bottom
The Sunbeam Corp factory in Palmerston North is closing after over 20 years production in Palmerston North. The seasonal staff will finish their season on June 25th and the plant will close shortly after. 122 workers are being made redundant and 34 of them are permanent staff.
The plant manager Craig Dias said “We are making products in a competitive open global market and it is uneconomic to continue to make these type of appliances in New Zealand if they aren't aimed at a niche market.”
Craig Dias praised the local media, business, and personnel agencies, “The local business industry has helped with job placement and most of the staff have placements already.”
When asked what the Government could have done to alleviate the company's situation he said “There are only two things that could have been done; one was to use tariffs, the other was tax relief.”
There has been a pattern of closures in the manufacturing industry since the New Zealand government started pursuing a free trade agenda. Click Clack Ltd, another Palmerston North factory, is also ceasing to manufacture goods, although its head office will still be there. It is estimated that over 30 jobs will be lost. Like Sunbeam, the company has been working hard to relocate workers to other plants, and to other jobs in the Manawatu. While there have been a number of Regional Development projects which are expected to provide some jobs in the Manawatu they will not help ease the impact of 150 job losses.
George Larkins from the Manufacturing and Construction Union (Wellington Branch Secretary) who has members in the factory said “The workers are devastated. They aren't in highly paid skilled jobs, they will find it very hard to get work in the Manawatu. The main cause is government policy, which, for example, has allowed the dollar to strengthen beyond what exporters have budgeted for.”
When asked what he would like to say to ministers like Jim Sutton who promote a free trade agenda, Larkins said “It is all very well to be looking at the big picture, but come up here and look at the devastation you are causing these workers, and tell them why you think this is acceptable.”
As Robert Reid from the Clothing Workers Union said “The closure of the Sunbeam factory is one more example of the closures that have been happening since the Rogernomics period of free trade policies that started in 1984.”
There is controversy over the much heralded New Zealand/China Free Trade agreement. The government seeks more access for New Zealand's primary products, essentially farming produce. Rod Donald from the Green Party has criticised Helen Clark directly for not pushing for fair trade and raising the awareness of China's “awful labour and environmental record” when she signed the first document towards the agreement last week.
With the majority of clothing and manufacturing goods coming from China, the New Zealand/China Free Trade Agreement effectively makes any industry tariffs completely redundant.
Craig Dias from Sunbeam did not believe that the Free Trade Agreement was critical to the closing of the plant. However, as ARENA (Action Research Education Network of Aotearoa) researcher Bill Rosenburg said "All these free trade agreements certainly have a racheting down effect on our economy, preventing us from now or in the future ever supporting a New Zealand manufacturing industry, including textiles and clothing. For the Sunbeam factory it might not have been what closed the factory, but it denied hope of any relief in the future."
Political parties like the Alliance Party and Green Party have worked hard to keep tariffs in place, including the placement of a freeze on tariff reductions in the clothing industry from 2000-2005, and to avoid free trade agreements. They propose instead to look to fair trade deals which focus on avoiding exploitation of workers and the environment in all participating countries. However the Labour government seems to have entirely ignored the concerns of the local community and political advocates for caution and restraint.
There are growing concerns that a tiny minority saying that they oppose free trade is fuelling anti-Asian sentiment. Unwelcome newcomers to the free trade debate have been the neo-nazi National Front who are planning a demonstration outside the plant when it closes. A Wellington activist who observed a recent demonstration of skinheads outside the Chinese Embassy said “They say they support workers rights, yet none of them were in a union, instead they spent their time making racist and homophobic comments. The politics of the National Front are entirely based on hate, they were outside the embassy because of their hatred of people who aren’t European, not because of any free trade agreement. Helen Clark's house is just down the road, place the blame where it is due. ”
As Robert Reid from the Clothing Workers Union stated “New Zealand trade negotiators are negotiating away the NZ manufacturing and textiles industry, in order to get access for primary goods. There's no point in blaming the Chinese government, Chinese workers, or fuelling anti-China hysteria, because in the end we're doing it to ourselves.”
Manufacturing Closures: A Race to the Bottom
The Sunbeam Corp factory in Palmerston North is closing after over 20 years production in Palmerston North. The seasonal staff will finish their season on June 25th and the plant will close shortly after. 122 workers are being made redundant and 34 of them are permanent staff...
...There has been a pattern of closures in the manufacturing industry since the New Zealand government started pursuing a free trade agenda. Click Clack Ltd, another Palmerston North factory, is also ceasing to manufacture goods, although its head office will still be there. It is estimated that over 30 jobs will be lost. Like Sunbeam, the company has been working hard to relocate workers to other plants, and to other jobs in the Manawatu. While there have been a number of Regional Development projects which are expected to provide some jobs in the Manawatu they will not help ease the impact of 150 job losses.
The plant manager Craig Dias said “We are making products in a competitive open global market and it is uneconomic to continue to make these type of appliances in New Zealand if they aren't aimed at a niche market.”
Craig Dias praised the local media, business, and personnel agencies, “The local business industry has helped with job placement and most of the staff have placements already.”
When asked what the Government could have done to alleviate the company's situation he said “There are only two things that could have been done; one was to use tariffs, the other was tax relief.”
There has been a pattern of closures in the manufacturing industry since the New Zealand government started pursuing a free trade agenda. Click Clack Ltd, another Palmerston North factory, is also ceasing to manufacture goods, although its head office will still be there. It is estimated that over 30 jobs will be lost. Like Sunbeam, the company has been working hard to relocate workers to other plants, and to other jobs in the Manawatu. While there have been a number of Regional Development projects which are expected to provide some jobs in the Manawatu they will not help ease the impact of 150 job losses.
George Larkins from the Manufacturing and Construction Union (Wellington Branch Secretary) who has members in the factory said “The workers are devastated. They aren't in highly paid skilled jobs, they will find it very hard to get work in the Manawatu. The main cause is government policy, which, for example, has allowed the dollar to strengthen beyond what exporters have budgeted for.”
When asked what he would like to say to ministers like Jim Sutton who promote a free trade agenda, Larkins said “It is all very well to be looking at the big picture, but come up here and look at the devastation you are causing these workers, and tell them why you think this is acceptable.”
As Robert Reid from the Clothing Workers Union said “The closure of the Sunbeam factory is one more example of the closures that have been happening since the Rogernomics period of free trade policies that started in 1984.”
There is controversy over the much heralded New Zealand/China Free Trade agreement. The government seeks more access for New Zealand's primary products, essentially farming produce. Rod Donald from the Green Party has criticised Helen Clark directly for not pushing for fair trade and raising the awareness of China's “awful labour and environmental record” when she signed the first document towards the agreement last week.
With the majority of clothing and manufacturing goods coming from China, the New Zealand/China Free Trade Agreement effectively makes any industry tariffs completely redundant.
Craig Dias from Sunbeam did not believe that the Free Trade Agreement was critical to the closing of the plant. However, as ARENA (Action Research Education Network of Aotearoa) researcher Bill Rosenburg said "All these free trade agreements certainly have a racheting down effect on our economy, preventing us from now or in the future ever supporting a New Zealand manufacturing industry, including textiles and clothing. For the Sunbeam factory it might not have been what closed the factory, but it denied hope of any relief in the future."
Political parties like the Alliance Party and Green Party have worked hard to keep tariffs in place, including the placement of a freeze on tariff reductions in the clothing industry from 2000-2005, and to avoid free trade agreements. They propose instead to look to fair trade deals which focus on avoiding exploitation of workers and the environment in all participating countries. However the Labour government seems to have entirely ignored the concerns of the local community and political advocates for caution and restraint.
There are growing concerns that a tiny minority saying that they oppose free trade is fuelling anti-Asian sentiment. Unwelcome newcomers to the free trade debate have been the neo-nazi National Front who are planning a demonstration outside the plant when it closes. A Wellington activist who observed a recent demonstration of skinheads outside the Chinese Embassy said “They say they support workers rights, yet none of them were in a union, instead they spent their time making racist and homophobic comments. The politics of the National Front are entirely based on hate, they were outside the embassy because of their hatred of people who aren’t European, not because of any free trade agreement. Helen Clark's house is just down the road, place the blame where it is due. ”
As Robert Reid from the Clothing Workers Union stated “New Zealand trade negotiators are negotiating away the NZ manufacturing and textiles industry, in order to get access for primary goods. There's no point in blaming the Chinese government, Chinese workers, or fuelling anti-China hysteria, because in the end we're doing it to ourselves.”
Re: Manufacturing Closures: A Race to the Bottom
I agree that manufacturing and big bussines are all about maximising profits.
But why else would you go into bussines other than to make money?
The loss of jobs in NZ can be attributed to the unions and their demands for higher wages, less work hours,penal rates,extra maternity leave, etc. etc. All of the above are expenses that bussines will not have by moving to some other countries.
Unions through their misguided struggle for the working class are actually creating a larger unemployed class.
Re: Manufacturing Closures: A Race to the Bottom
ED
Would like NZ to be like Colombia, China or Indonesia where unionists are imprisoned or shot by death squads? These nations also have a lot more homeless people than New Zealand.
Re: Manufacturing Closures: A Race to the Bottom
Cam get off your high horse.
No one said they should be shot.
Unionists have their place but nine times out of ten do not have the bussines knowledge to make reasonable demands.
The only reason people in those other countries are poorer is they do not have a social welfare system.
Re: Manufacturing Closures: A Race to the Bottom
We can thank left unions and the 30's Labour government for our welfare system ED.
Re: Manufacturing Closures: A Race to the Bottom
Yes Cam you can thank them for the welfare system which ultimately feeds off the working class so who are the unionists actually supporting their fee paying members or the bludgers feeding on the scraps?
Re: Manufacturing Closures: A Race to the Bottom
Why dont you just admit it Ed.
You want low wages, long hours and crap workind conditions...why do you want this? WHY????
You also want a sweatshop economy..
Re: Manufacturing Closures: A Race to the Bottom
It seems strange to me that Scott a "Communist worker" likes the free market.
Re: Manufacturing Closures: A Race to the Bottom
brain says: "Wonder who really gives a fuck?"
Well, we know it isn't brain.
Re: Manufacturing Closures: A Race to the Bottom
To claim that the only reason why people in poorer country are poor is due to no welfare system just shows how ignorant Ed really is. The main reason why developing country’s remain poor is the farm subsides rich country’s give to their farmers. That’s one of the biggest reason why poor countrys remain poor.
Actually ED,,,,
"just shows how ignorant Ed really is."
is 10 times more stupid than you are giving her credit for.
Re: Manufacturing Closures: A Race to the Bottom
you know....the contmept towards workers rights in this nation amazes me...
I feel an article coming on...
Re: Manufacturing Closures: A Race to the Bottom
It seems to me that arguement shouldn't be about dominant business paying workers stuff all and constantly threatening to move offshore if they have to put with more regulation or turning our backs on international trade and putting up the barriers in terms of tarriffs and quotas.
What about a balance in that local goods would be protected by a general tarriff which would increase the cost of imports by the general cost of local business complying with environmental and social laws.
Our environmental and social objectives are what make us a 1st world nation and should not be sacrificed for the "race to the bottom" alluded to in this article where companies constantly undercut each other by shitting on the environment and paying workers a pittance.
In short the biggest problems with the NZ Economy is the lack of "fair competition" with foriegners who have no obligation to comply with environmental and social regulations and;
The foriegn ownership of our major businesses and hence the mass outflow of capital from NZ every year. If we never have capital remaining in NZ we can never hope to build a strong domestic economy even if the opporunity existed.
Re: Manufacturing Closures: A Race to the Bottom
Well, more workers have been laid off for the Chinese...
This time, a stove factory in Mt Manganui.
This who deal is wrong. Wages here are high and workers enjoy good conditions. Whats wrong with that.....if this carries on, we will all be dragged down..
Re: Manufacturing Closures: A Race to the Bottom
Good to see Shortfuse and Milsy on here! My two bros from the Xtra news community!
Re: Manufacturing Closures: A Race to the Bottom
Hehe, Hi Cam.