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LOCAL News :: Labour : Labour
Labour and National: Two sides of the same coin
Author
- Wildcat Anarchist Collective
Date Created
- 20 Jul 2006
Date Edited
- 20 Jul 2006 10:52:25 AM
License
This work is in the public domain.
National MP Wayne Mapp's 90Day Bill is the first in what may be a series of full-scale attacks on workers' rights.
The bill gives the employer the ability to fire workers with no reason within the first 90 days of employment. In addition there would be no right of appeal.
The bill gives the employer the ability to fire workers with no reason within the first 90 days of employment. In addition there would be no right of appeal.
The Labour Government has made very little comment on the bill. Instead Finance Minister Michael Cullen has focused on telling workers that they shouldn't push for higher wages while the cost of basic necessities are rising. Cullen recently received an 8% salary increase.
The New Zealand Council of Trade Unions has been gutless in confronting this Labour government with the reality of people's lives. Instead many of their affiliate unions spend time and money electing Labour. The recent report by the Ministry of Social Development New Zealand Living Standards shows that despite economic 'growth', the amount of people living in severe hardship grew to 8%.
National and Labour are very similar; they just differ in their tactics. National would like to strip workers of many of their rights, and propose 'work for the dole' schemes for those not working.
Labour prefers to deny or reduce benefits like it did with 'Jobs Jolt' and appears to be proposing with the Single Core Benefit, or the corporate welfare of the 'Working for Families' package which is taking the pressure off employers to pay a living wage.
National and Labour are silent on the unpaid work of childcare which is mostly done by women, and without which capitalism would simply not function.
Also, both parties unquestioningly support the Reserve Bank Act. This is the rough mechanism by which the Reserve Bank raises interest rates to increase unemployment in order to keep the pressure on wages down.
National and Labour are silent on the unpaid work of childcare which is mostly done by women, and without which capitalism would simply not function.
The term for these types of tactics is class war, and its time to fight back.
We need to build a movement that is based on the idea that the interests of the ruling class are fundamentally in opposition to us.
Within the union movement we believe the first steps are:
- To fight for union democracy;
- An end to "partnership for quality" type strategies;
- And to stop wasting time and money on parliamentary parties.
The New Zealand Council of Trade Unions has been gutless in confronting this Labour government with the reality of people's lives. Instead many of their affiliate unions spend time and money electing Labour. The recent report by the Ministry of Social Development New Zealand Living Standards shows that despite economic 'growth', the amount of people living in severe hardship grew to 8%.
National and Labour are very similar; they just differ in their tactics. National would like to strip workers of many of their rights, and propose 'work for the dole' schemes for those not working.
Labour prefers to deny or reduce benefits like it did with 'Jobs Jolt' and appears to be proposing with the Single Core Benefit, or the corporate welfare of the 'Working for Families' package which is taking the pressure off employers to pay a living wage.
National and Labour are silent on the unpaid work of childcare which is mostly done by women, and without which capitalism would simply not function.
Also, both parties unquestioningly support the Reserve Bank Act. This is the rough mechanism by which the Reserve Bank raises interest rates to increase unemployment in order to keep the pressure on wages down.
National and Labour are silent on the unpaid work of childcare which is mostly done by women, and without which capitalism would simply not function.
The term for these types of tactics is class war, and its time to fight back.
We need to build a movement that is based on the idea that the interests of the ruling class are fundamentally in opposition to us.
Within the union movement we believe the first steps are:
- To fight for union democracy;
- An end to "partnership for quality" type strategies;
- And to stop wasting time and money on parliamentary parties.
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Comments
Re: Labour and National: Two sides of the same coin
Re: Labour and National: Two sides of the same coin
Re: Labour and National: Two sides of the same coin
not flat!?
how come all the shit doesn't slide off then??
Re: Labour and National: Two sides of the same coin
I have seen some figures that suggest that Labour hire, permanent casualisation and temporary arrangements account for about 20% of the NZ labour force.
The inability of the traditional labour organisations to deal with this issue will result in the wholesale undermining of ordinary workers conditions, if the Australian experience is anything to go by.
Over there in "organised" workplace after workplace, union bosses ignored the issue of labour hire, and encouraged permanent workers to view labour hire workers as the "enemy'.
As long as “permanents” conditions were covered by a union contract everything was roses, they said.
Union negotiated contracts excluded labour hire workers, leaving them at the mercy of the labour hire company and the immediate workplace boss.
Even in ‘strong’ union shops in 2003, it was not unusual to find 30% labour hire workers (usually excluded even from attending onsite union meetings), working alongside union delegates who could see no problem with this arrangement.
Naturally enough this also suited bosses fine,
As labour hire conditions were hugely inferior to the union conditions, it didn’t take long for bosses to introduce an increasing LH component, whilst laying off permanent workers (often with the agreement of union bosses, on sneakily generous redundancy packages).
Consequently, whole swathes of many industries became predominantly LH, on lower wages, unorganised and undermining the conditions of the "organised workers" in the few remaining "hot' union shops.
The situation was a total disaster, precipitated by poor foresight and self interest of union bosses, coupled with their pandering to the worst “I’m all right jack” prejudices of some backwards elements in the unions.
This situation has only recently begun to turn around after Labour Hire workers organised themselves to fix the situation, and give their union bosses a well deserved kicking and remedial lessons in how to organise.
The moral of the story: Do it yourself. Don’t wait for an official to save your workplace, organise the labour hire and casual workers as well as the permanents. None of us has any interest in allowing employers to dictate the terms of our employment.
Rates of pay for LH and casuals must include casual loading (equal to lost time for holidays, sikkies etc), and any other rights won by permanents.
They must automatically be encouraged to join the workplace union and exercise their collective rights, and then there is no incentive for the bosses to try and engage workers on these dodgy LH and casual schemes.
Re: Labour and National: Two sides of the same coin
Re: Labour and National: Two sides of the same coin
If you want to see some sniping at the left, try criticising Labour's capitalist policies at a CTU run meeting, just be quick enough to dodge the hail of verbal bullets from the top table.
Top union officials have already got all the rights they want; good pay, career paths and a safe labour seat waiting at the end of the road.
Others of us not in that happy situation need to unite in opposition to low pay, fixed term contracts, bullying supervisors, dirty dangerous boring work and loaded labour laws, of which Mapp's bill is but one.
Labouring on
IWD, it's nice to be in agreement on something.
As you point out, it's highly important for us to draw lessons from the experience of the casualisation process in Australia.
IR academics Iain Campbell and Peter Brosnan did a valuable paper called Relative Advantages: Casual Employment and Casualisaiton in Australia and New Zealand. The main argument is that rates of casualisation are comparatively lower in New Zealand purely because wages amongst the core/permananet workforce are a lot lower here, privelaging a lower demand amongst employers for temporary arrangements. So the contradiction is that because wgaes and copnditions are worse here, there is less need for temporary staff.
So becasue it's so shit, the employers need to employ quantitatively less shit against workers here.. But yeah, I think 30% temp in Aus, and 20% temp in NZ is where we are up at the moment.
You could prob. google that article. J.
Re: Labour and National: Two sides of the same coin
indymedia.org.nz/newswire/display/48718/index.php
Also, Labour hasn't been particularly against the bill in public, there's not much to unite with, if you care too. One part of me thinks this is probably laziness, the other is that I think it is probably true that there are more than one or two MPs who think this generally is a good idea.
Like you both, I think that workers should know more about the facts. For me though the facts about Labour - are not flattering at all.
Re: Labour and National: Two sides of the same coin
labor reps turned up to the work rights rally in chch yesterday with "vote for us" placards and a strange idol representing helen clark.
it was sickning.
they even did this bullshit speech on how labor is better than national.
i cant beleive everyone let them get away with it.
i was probably the only one who went up to them and voiced my dessent.
'Labouring On'
'assignments'. The other 4000 are out doing percarious work, with absolutely atrocious conditions, often without breaks, and often doing tasks that are more dangerous than usual.
Allied Work Force first reistered on the New Zealand Stock Exchange main board in July 2005, with a $7.6 million share (www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU0507/S00083.htm). This time last year it had 6000 workers on its books. Now, with 10,000 workers on its books, the company has extended its reach into the labour market by 80 percent.
Allied Workforce is one of many temping agencies that has grown dramatically, and has prospered, over the last few years under Labour governments. If employment surveys actually recognised different forms of employment relationships, temporary workers, with digraceful conditions, would now register as a percentage of the workforce.
So it's a bit rich for the CTU heads and their supporters, with their single strategy and ultimate goal of re-electing the Labour Party, to equivocate the 90-day Probationary Bill with any new occurence of slave labour.
At the practical level we need union drives amongst casual workers. At the subjective level we need to recognise precarious labour and labour market flexibilisation. These are the fights we should be involved in. The CTU leadership, however, wants a safe anti-Mapp campaign, focussed on the National Party. By protesting against National, and not protesting against flexibilisation in general, they seek to turn a struggle based on real employment issues into a negative campaign for the Labour Party.
As casualisation grows enourmously under labour, we have to concentrate our fire on flexibilisation/casualisation, including the proposed legislation contained in the 90-day Bill. Happily, we can see that there are indications of real anti-casualisation campaigning, such as the development of Unite Union which demands secure hours. We can also hear the rumblings of a true organising model in some other, bigger, unions.
Re: Labour and National: Two sides of the same coin
Well said.
In fact, although press statements issue almost daily from the CTU head office, I don't believe there was any comment from them at all about severe poverty going up to 8% under Labour. Or that fact that it's been increasing among Maori.
Re: Labour and National: Two sides of the same coin