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Rat Patrol and Workers Rights Campaign – fight unfair sackings

by Michael Ashton

An online survey commissioned by the New Zealand Business Council in February found that 1 in 5 people in the workforce fear that they will lose their jobs in 2009. Thirty-nine percent of those indicating they fear job loss are earners of between $20,001 and $30,000 a year, meaning that this category feels most insecure.

The introduction this month of the 90-day probationary employment legislation will compound the growing anxiety amongst working people and especially the working poor. A stand is being made through the Rat Patrol, a group of people who have undertaken to put pickets and a giant inflatable rat outside the premises of employers who unfairly dismiss workers in their first 90-days. Continue reading “Rat Patrol and Workers Rights Campaign – fight unfair sackings”

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New Zealand’s Imperialist attitude toward Fiji

Byron Clark The Spark March 2009

In what John Key has described as sending “a strong message” Pacific Forum leaders voted earlier this year to suspend Fiji from the Forum unless the interim government sets an election date before May 1. The suspension means that Fiji cannot attend meetings between forum leaders, ministers or officials; it will also be excluded from benefiting from any regional initiatives run under the forum. Both Mr Key and forum chairman Toke Talagi said the decision was made by consensus, a surprising result given smaller Pacific nations were expected to vote against suspension, with Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare stating in his speech (released to the media before the meeting) “I am of the strong view that adopting an isolationist approach would be unhelpful.”

Fiji has already lost the benefits of one “regional initative” – participation in the seasonal work scheme allowing Pacific Islanders to work in New Zealand. Fiji was suspended from the scheme by the previous Labour government. So far this sanction has done little – if anything – to destabilise the military regime, instead it has effected ordinary Fijians. The Fiji based Coalition for Democracy and Peace, consisting of citizens’ groups and non-governmental organisations, had said that the poor are the ones most affected by sanctions imposed by New Zealand. Even when New Zealand sent aid to Fiji (via the Red Cross) in the wake of horrific floods, local Fijians said a better way for the New Zealand Government to help them would be to let them work in New Zealand, rather than give aid money. A petition was circulated asking Prime Minister John Key to issue special directions for one-year work visas for flood victims, and for an equivalent to the Pacific Access Category for Fijian citizens already in New Zealand. Continue reading “New Zealand’s Imperialist attitude toward Fiji”

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For a real summit

Don Franks

The worth of the recent Jobs Summit can be summed up in one word – Sealord.

The first major employment incident after the government sponsored summit was an announcement of imminent job losses from the aptly feudally titled company.

Sealord, owned jointly by Nippon Suisan Kaisha of Japan and Maori tribes via Aotearoa Fisheries, intends to cut 180 land-based jobs in Nelson and is not ruling out the closure of its plant there.

The Service & Food Workers Union (SFWU) said the company wanted to cut the pay of remaining workers by $70 a week.

Prime Minister John Key said:

“I think in the case of Sealords they’re actually restructuring their business.

“One thing we have to be realistic about is the recession will ultimately drive some of those changes, it’s not to say we’re not hugely sympathetic to those who have lost their job, we understand that there will be change,” Mr Key told TV3’s Sunrise.

In other words, when it comes to day to day business decisions, the summit means zilch. Continue reading “For a real summit”

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Workers rights from day 1

Around 30 people picketed outside National MP Nicky Wagner’s office on Friday 27 February in protest at the government’s 90 day sacking law.90-day-protest-chch

The picket was called by the Workers Rights Campaign, a joint WP-Alliance initiative which has broadened out to involve class-struggle anarchists, Socialist Workers and anyone who wants to oppose the 90-day legislation on an anti-capitalist basis.

Wagner’s staff locked the doors, apparently fearing an occupation although one hadn’t been planned. Occupations can wait until the first firings start.

The attendance included Workers Party, Alliance, Socialist Workers, anarchists (including from the new Workers Solidarity Movement), and small contingents from both the EPMU and SFWU, with their union banners, plus some high school students from Unlimited (an alternative school in the city centre).

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Picket against new “Fire-at-Will” law in Christchurch

dalek

Press Release: Workers Rights Campaign

Canterbury’s newly-formed Workers Rights Campaign is planning a symbolic picket at the offices of Government M.P. Nicola Wagner to protest at the new “fire-at-will” provisions of New Zealand’s industrial law.

Campaign spokesman Paul Piesse said today that the justification for the new law, which allows employers to sack workers within the first three months of their employment without giving any reason at all, let alone any justification, is a hypocritical sham.

The big lie, Mr Piesse said, is the deceit that the law would encourage employers to take on people they otherwise would not. Employers, he said, only ever employ people when they really need them. Their objective is to maximise their profits – they don’t function as a social service to the unemployed.

Neither do they engage the least appealing applicant; and nor will they because of the new law.

The Workers Rights Campaign says that the law is a breach of civil rights, in that it discriminates against a specific group of citizens – job applicants – distinguishing them from those already employed.

Mr Piesse added that the law is aimed at the most vulnerable: the young; casual and part time workers; those made redundant from their previous employment – likely to be a rapidly increasing number of New Zealanders; anyone changing jobs; and older workers.
The Workers Rights Campaign will picket the premises of any employer availing him/herself of this contemptible new law when it is brought to its attention.

Mr Piesse said that the new law was just the start of an employer-Government campaign to make working people pay the price of the inevitable and cyclic crisis of the capitalist system.

The picket at Wagner’s office, 189 Montreal St Christchurch, will take place on Friday 27th February at 1 p.m.

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Kindergarten teachers deserve wider support

-Don Franks

The Spark February 2009

Kindergarten teachers are seeking to ensure they don’t cop a 90-day trial period when they start a new job.

The workers’ union, NZEI Te Riu Roa, has lodged the first employment claim in response to the National government’s anti-worker Employment Relations Amendment Act 2008. (Under the new law, rushed through Parliament before Christmas without any public consultation, an employer need give no reason for sacking someone in any work site of less than 20 people within the first 90 days of their employment.)

NZEI’s National Secretary Paul Goulter says the union believes the 90-day probation legislation is unfair and unjust to workers and has serious implications for the education sector where recruitment is a major challenge.

Continue reading “Kindergarten teachers deserve wider support”

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Make National’s “Fire at Will” law a dead letter!

dalek

A forum to discuss plans for resisting the new 90-day legislation, the National-led government’s Xmas present to workers, is being held on Wednesday, February 4 at the WEA (Workers Educational Association) building, 59 Gloucester St, Christchurch, starting at 7pm.

Speakers include Andrew Mckenzie (Alliance; and a lawyer specialising in labour issues); Byron Clark (Workers Party; youth union activist); Fay Birch (cleaner and worker-advocate, specialising in personal grievance issues). Other union speakers have been invited.

The meeting is organised by the Workers Party and the Alliance Party.

All welcome!

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Fuck John Key

(Music by Chuck Berry)

 On the plutey side of Auckland where the salaries swell

In a half acre mansion in the middle of Parnell

Created out of value stole from you and me

There lives a little arsehole that they call John Key

He learned how to play the figures really well

To help the bosses screw the workers down to hell

GO – GO JOHNNY  GO – GO JOHNNY  GO -GO JOHNNY  GO – GO – GO JOHNNY  GO –TORY FUCK OFF

He came into power by saying he’d tax much less

And doing that would fix the economic mess

Exploiters at the top are going to benefit

While all the rest of us sink lower in the shit

We didn’t used to live in bloody paradise

But no rights for ninety days just tightens up the vice

( chorus)

Now some say the way to lose this Tory germ

Is voting Labour back to have another term

Well, we tried that tactic back in ’84

The slash we got from Rogernomics still feels raw

Don’t let any yuppie bastard fool ya

We need a change of system, not a change of ruler

( chorus)

 Don Franks 2009

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Sack the bosses

john-key-houseA dozen activists from Socialist Aotearoa, the Workers Party and the Greens protested outside John Key’s house today, against the passing of the 90-day bill. The new law which comes into force in March 2009 gives small employers the right to sack staff in the first 3 months without legal redress.

The noisy protest ruffled the feathers of some of the residents of Key’s leafy neighbourhood. Some parents complained saying “there are children in the area, you know!” But rather than being horrified by the picket a large bunch of 8 to 14 year olds joined in, obviously enjoying the picket theatrics.

The picketers chanting “So it didn’t take you long; workers rights down the John” got some disapproving looks from the Range Rover mums, but lots of support from the younger set.

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What can we expect from National?

The Spark December 2008 – January 2009
– Philip Ferguson

With National back in power, albeit as a minority government, what can workers expect? Is this going to be a repeat of the first term of the last National government (1990-1993), the one that produced the “mother of all budgets” (cutting the dole, the DPB and other benefits by around 25%) and the notorious Employment Contracts Act?
According to much of the left, it is going to be just as bad – or even worse! They think this is especially so because of ACT, and often insist on referring to the government as the National-ACT coalition. A number of important points are missed by that analysis, however.

Continue reading “What can we expect from National?”