Anti-Poverty Day - Solidarity with Cleaners

Submitted by AIMC (not verified) on 13 October 2006 - 12:00pm
in
  • Civil & Human Rights
  • Class War
  • Neoliberalism
  • Protest Activity
  • International

On Tuesday the 17th of October, cleaners are organising demonstrations in Auckland and Wellington in support of a $12 minimum wage. The demonstrations have been organised on International Anti-Poverty Day to highlight the realities of life for cleaners. Cleaners are some of the worst paid workers in Aotearoa, one said, “I’m in town from 8am to 11pm. I go from one building to the next; I have an hour or sometimes two in-between cleaning each building. I never get to see my kids”. The cleaners union, the Service and Food Workers Union is campaigning for a fair deal for Aotearoa's inner city cleaners who are mainly Pacific Island and Maori women and who mostly receive less than $11 an hour. The Clean Start: Fair Deal for Cleaners campaign is an international push for better pay and conditions for cleaners. [ Media Release ]

  • Auckland. Rally and March. Meet at Britomart at 5pm

  • Wellington. Rally and March. Meet at Parliament at 12noon
    Read Demonstration Reports

    Anti-Poverty Forum
    On Thursday October 17 there will be an Anti Poverty Forum at 6:30pm, Nga Tapuwae Community Centre, 253 Buckland Rd, Mangere.
    Speakers include John Minto (Global Peace and Justice Auckland), Mike O’Brien (Child Poverty Action Group),Malia Tuai (AuckPac – Pacific Island Health and Wellbeing), Jill Ovens (Affordable Housing activist and Regional Secretary, SFWU), Farida Sultana (Shakti Asian Women's Centre), Reverend Mua Strickson Pua (Pacific Island Presbyterian Church)and Sue Lafaele (Clean Start activist).
    Read the report on inequalities for Pacific Islanders. Click here.

    Related

    http://www.sfwu.org/index.asp?pageID=2145839489

    • Comments

    Human Rights for Workers Campaign

    Submitted by Anonymous on 15 October 2006 - 4:45pm.

    Human Rights for Workers
    First campaign planning meeting

    7.30pm this Wednesday, 18th October
    Trades Hall, 147 Great North Rd, Grey Lynn

    The Workers Charter national conference held last Saturday decided to
    launch a Human Rights for Workers campaign, based around the following
    three demands:

    1. $15 minimum wage.
    2. Abolish youth rates - equal pay for equal work.
    3. The right to strike over any issue.

    The immediate goal of the campaign is to get the CTU to call a
    nationwide meeting of unionists around these three demands and how we
    can get them put into practice.

    Workers around the country are continuing to move onto the front foot.
    This campaign - backed up by regular leaflets and good use of the
    Workers Charter paper as a campaigning tool - has a good chance of
    grabbing their imaginations, as well as the imagination of the more
    staunch and forward-thinking union officials. Our lively conference,
    attended by some of those union leaders, shows the potential that our
    paper and our concept have. But now it's time to make some practical
    steps towards building a real movement among workers.

    With that in mind, we're calling together our first Auckland Campaigning
    Meeting for Wednesday, October 18th, 7:30 pm, at Trades Hall. If this
    campaign takes off in Auckland, it will spread like wildfire to the rest
    of the country. It also intersects with the vital union struggles going
    on at the moment, such as the Feltex workers' redundancy struggle,
    SFWU's Clean Start campaign and Solidarity Union's push to organise
    industrial workers in South Auckland.

    Hope you can all make it to this important occasion. Please get in touch
    with any questions, comments, or if you need transport.

    Daphne Lawless
    Chair of Auckland Workers Charter
    daphlawless@paradise.net.nz
    (027) 220 9552