Unite union has launched a campaign in workplaces and communities for a national referendum on the issue of a $15 minimum wage. In this early stage of the campaign, Workers Party activists and other leftists are hitting the streets and public events to help gather the signatures to force the referendum. Here are some interesting comments, reports, and examples from the campaign on the ground. Read the rest of this entry »
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In April, we reported on vote for industrial action at VT Fitzroy Devonport, Auckland. Workers were adamant that they could do better than the company’s “best offer”, and put in place an overtime ban. (They are members of the EPMU, PSA and Amalgamated Workers Union). After just two weeks, they recieved an improved offer which was acceptable to the majority of the union membership.
Although there was no change in the pay offer of the first year of the Collective Agreement (3.3%), the second year
offer was increased to 4%. The claim for reinstatement of the historic Confined Space allowance wasn’t won this time,
but there were gains in other areas, such as enhancements to the “Working on ships not along side” allowance.
The lesson is clear: A little bit of militancy gets us a little bit extra!
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The Spark June 2009
Air New Zealand flight attendants working for Zeal 320 Ltd took industrial action beginning in March. After months of unsuccessful negotiations between Zeal and the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU), the 240 union members employed as flight attendants decided they had had enough. The workers, most of whom are young women with no previous union experience, are employed by Zeal 320 Ltd but work for Air New Zealand. They wear the same uniforms, fly on the same aircraft and are in every respect exactly the same as flight attendants employed directly by Air New Zealand – except in their employment contracts.
Zeal 320 Ltd, a wholly Air New Zealand owned subsidiary, was set up to employ staff on the now defunct cut price Freedom Air. When Freedom Air was absorbed into its parent company, the staff were kept on their Zeal contracts, meaning that they earn thousands of dollars less every year than their co-workers employed directly by Air New Zealand. Zeal staff are employed on a lower base rate than Air New Zealand staff. They are denied many basic allowances such as dry cleaning and other clothing related compensation that people on Air New Zealand contracts receive. The allowances they do receive are generally lower than the Air New Zealand equivalents. Read the rest of this entry »
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There Is No Alternative?
A Workers Response to the Financial Crisis
A teach-in organised by the Workers Rights Campaign
Saturday May 2nd
1-00pm
Canterbury WEA, 59 Gloucester Street
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| Workers at the naval dockyard at Devonport voted for strike action at a meeting on Thursday by 108 votes to five. They rejected a pay offer from their employer, VT Fitzroy that included a lump sum payment with no less than five separate conditions attached to it. The unions on site – EPMU, PSA and AWUNZ – are claiming a 4.5% pay increase and restoration of the confined space allowance, which they had lost years back. |
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In solidarity with Auckland, Unite union Wellington members, volunteers and supporters will picket the Ministry of Social Development, who contract out their call centres to Synovate. Synovate have illegally locked out their workers in negotiations over pay.
The picket will take place at noon, Tuesday April 14th. Please support this worthwhile action if you can
Over 30 market research call centre workers in Auckland, who are members of the Unite Union have been illegally locked out on Easter Friday by their employer, British multi-national corporation, Synovate. 
The corporation’s New Zealand managers were instructed by their British senior managers to lock-out the New Zealand workforce after they turned down a pay offer of a measly 20 cents an hour.
The company locked the workers out and padlocked the front entrance of the building. The managers put up a notice telling the non union workers to sneak in by the back door. In response to this Union officials and members added their own locks to the front door and used cars and locks to block all other entrances to the building.
Locked in
This effectively locked the bosses inside for two hours until the union allowed one car to be moved to allow delegates to enter the building to continue the negotiations
Almost all the employees are paid the minimum wage. Yet Synovate, pays their workers in Australia $22 an hour for the same work and increased their wages by 3.5% in January. After six months of negotiations their New Zealand workers are being told that they will stay locked out until they accept Synovate’s 20 cents an hour offer with possibly of another 15 cents an hour in 6 months.
Like hundreds of other call centre workers the Synovate workers are part of the Unite Union’s Calling for Change campaign to improve wages and conditions in Auckland call centres. Synovate workers went on hunger strike in February to draw attention to their low wages and sweatshop conditions.
Synovate is owned by the Aegis Group based in Britain which made £89.2 million in profit last year. In New Zealand Synovate undertakes market research for Ministry of Social Development and ASB Bank.
In solidarity with Auckland, Unite union Wellington members, volunteers and supporters will picket the Ministry of Social Development. The picket will take place at noon, Tuesday April 14th Ministry of Social Development office, Bowen State Building, Bowen St, Wellington. Please support this worthwhile action if you can.
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Don Franks The Spark April 2009
On its website, fishing company Sealord boasts of its responsible environmental practice:
”We are committed to harvesting the seas[sic] resources in a sustainable way and this is one of the key points of our company environmental policy. We have secure access to about 19 percent of New Zealand’s quota and have alliances or joint ventures in other countries. Wherever we operate we promote the adoption of sustainable fishing practices. In New Zealand waters we work with other fish quota holders, through fisheries management companies, to improve and monitor fishing standards, carry out research on fish stocks and find ways to reduce bycatch of mammals.”
Sealord isn’t committed to employment sustainability. The company intends cutting 180 land-based jobs in Nelson and is not ruling out the closure of its plant there.
The Service and Food workers union estimates that a total of 500 workers could lose their jobs. The union notes that at a time when unity and collective cooperation between unions, employers and the Government is making headlines, Sealord have demanded that their employees must accept a reduction in wages to increase profits or face dismissal. Read the rest of this entry »
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Jared Phillips The Spark April 2009
Resulting from the Job Summit in February, the government has now announced the introduction of the Job Support Scheme. At the time of writing, between 20-30 companies have taken up the government’s offer. Who benefits from the 9-day working fortnight?
In the past socialists have successfully fought for a shorter working week for the same pay. This has happened in the construction industry in Australia and in the meat industry in New Zealand. We need to raise these arguments again and also raise them at a higher level. Continual productivity gains make it possible for us to move to a society in which workers can consciously organise and limit the amount of time spent working while increasing their leisure time. Oppositely, under the capitalist system, the lives of the working class are organised by the rhythms of production. This is clearly the case when we look at the way hours of work are currently being re-regulated. Read the rest of this entry »
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The Brisbane Broncos won’t be experiencing full kiwi hospitality this weekend. The team is staying at Auckland’s plush Crowne Plaza hotel, where room attendants and other staff have gone on strike.
Around twenty members of Unite union are on strike; calling for a pay rise and better working conditions. “We are underpaid and overworked”
says Unite delegate Tapa Jago. “We are fed up with the low pay and heavy workloads”.
The hotel industry is one of the lowest paid sectors, says Unite organiser Daphna Whitmore. “The starting rate is just $13 an hour” she said. “The hotel made a gross profit of $8.5 million in 2008 but claims it cannot afford to lift the wages.”
The 360 room hotel is 100 percent full this weekend with the Waratahs and Brisbane Broncos teams staying.
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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. Read the rest of this entry »
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