Tag Archives: Unions

Mourning the self-inflicted death of NZ unions

Posted on by Brad Heap

The core purpose of workers unions is to band together as a group of individuals to create a collective entity to negotiate with employers in industrial relations. However, in the recent decades union membership has fallen as people become more individually competitive and the unions become more about political bias and ideology than actually representing workers.

Sure this may be a very broad generalisation but the actions of the Council of Trade Unions (CTU) in the dispute regarding The Hobbit has done more damage to the reputation of unions in NZ than any government policy could dream of.

If NZ loses The Hobbit much more than $500 million in production costs and 2,500 immediate jobs will be lost. The flow on effects of tourism and related jobs and money will also be lost and the value of this cannot be measured. All of this because an Australian union with 80 members in NZ tries to hold an entire nation to ransom.

The reality is NZ is small economically and this dispute is already having an impact on the currency markets. NZ’s reputation in Australia is being trashed with the story front page on Friday’s newspapers. And even the actual actors are fed up with the stupidity of the unions. The NZ Herald reports:

… at the Armageddon Expo, Stargate Atlantis actor Torri Higginson told the crowd it would be “insane” if The Hobbit was not filmed in New Zealand. “If anyone knows him [Peter Jackson] tell him I’ll work for free,” said Higginson. “F*** the unions.”

Personally, I am ideologically pro-union. However, the actions of the CTU have put me off ever joining a CTU affiliated union, and I think many people in NZ would feel the same way. I except in the coming year union membership in NZ to drop even more.

Kiwiblog sums up the feeling of the nation well:

I suspect many actors would work for free on the film. But Jackson will not only be paying good weekly rates, he is the first Producer to offer residuals to NZ actors. How the fuck the CTU ever decided to make him public enemy number one I don’t know.

UNSW Vice-Chancellor Spins NTEU Dispute in Amateur Hour Viral Video

Posted on by Brad Heap

This afternoon the Vice-Chancellor of UNSW, Professor Fred Hilmer emailed all students with his latest spin on the ongoing dispute between UNSW and the NTEU over pay and work conditions.

Until now I have been sitting on the fence in the dispute. Having been only studying at the university for six months I did not have enough information to form a complete opinion. However, given the actions of the Vice-Chancellor over the last few days I have now come down in full support of the union.

In the email and the accompanying video the Vice-Chancellor fails to address one of the major issues in the dispute, long term casual contracts for research staff. At the moment staff can be at the university for ten years or longer and never have a contract that provides them employment for more than a year. There are very few companies that I know that keep staff on perpetual fixed term contracts. Always having the threat of not having a job is not going to make a workforce very happy.

The actions of the Vice-Chancellor of UNSW over the last week in relation to the result bans have not sought to provide a quick resolution to the industrial dispute, instead they have sought to deliberately make it worse. Locking senior academics out of the university is a really petty move and will only cause the ill feeling between the academic staff and the university administration to increase.

If UNSW really want this dispute to go away they need to lift their lockout of staff and they need to focus on the issues that really matter rather than spinning amateur videos to students to try and win hearts and minds. The problem with trying to win hearts and minds is students are very thicked skinned and we can see right through the bullshit.

P.S. Next time you make a video to distribute to students from the Vice-Chancellor at least make sure the website address is right. myunsw.edu.au does not exist. It is my.unsw.edu.au

Dear students

You would be aware of the National Tertiary Education Union bans on the transmission of exam results and student assessment for semester one.

While only a small percentage of staff is taking part in this industrial action, we are concerned about the impact this action is having on students who have not yet received their results and we are working to minimize any disruption. I would appreciate you taking the time to watch this two minute video so I can let you know what measures the University has put in place.  I’ve also taken the opportunity to give you all a brief background on some of the issues involved in this dispute.

Yours sincerely

Professor Fred Hilmer
President and Vice-Chancellor

UNSW vs NTEU dispute becomes ugly as students turned into political prawns

Posted on by Brad Heap

Yesterday morning I found out that members of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) would be refusing to release student end of semester course marks as part of their ongoing dispute over pay and conditions with the University of New South Wales. Yesterday afternoon UNSW responded by issuing a refusal to pay any staff member who takes part it the ban on exam results. The Sydney Morning Herald reports on the issue here.

The biggest problem with refusing to release marks is that the main impact of this action will affect students far more than it effects the university. This step has seen students become political prawns in a petty dispute. While I support the right for members of the union to strike, and I certainly believe in their cause I do not see how bringing students into the crossfire is going to get the staff onside with anyone. However, I believe the actions in response by University management will only seek to inflame the situation further. Tit for tat is never a good way to resolve conflict.

If the staff really wanted to force the university’s hand they would place a ban on submitting papers and attending conferences. This would see a far bigger impact on the university’s reputation, standing and income. I do not believe that the NTEU would even consider this course of action because more than any lost income the action would directly affect the standing of its own members within the global academic community. But surely that is what industrial action is about, standing up for what you believe in, putting your reputation and standing on the line? Rather than using students as cheap political ammo the NTEU should focus on where it hurts, research output.

I support the bus drivers.

Posted on by Brad Heap

The Herald is reporting that the Bus Drivers lock out in Auckland could last days:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10601944

The lockout followed the drivers issuing the company with a work-to-rule notice.

It is important to note that the Bus Drivers are not on strike, they have been locked out because they gave a work to rule notice which is perfectly legal.

“The drivers have given the unions instruction that we are not to withdraw the work to rule notice unless there is a settlement.”

He said that meant the ball was in the company’s court.

“They will find it very hard to get the drivers back to work now that they have locked them out.”

Yup pretty good way to piss off all your workers, playing hardball is not a good approach in industrial relations.

He also accused the unions of having no interest in resolving the issue responsibly.

He said it could be resolved very simply by the unions lifting their notice of strike action.

Mr Froggatt said the drivers were not on strike as a notice of a work to rule was not strike action.

NZ Bus are clearly in the wrong here. Work to rule would see the buses still running.

Auckland Regional Council said yesterday it may impose a financial penalty on NZ Bus for withdrawing services.

Auckland Regional Council chairman Mike Lee said the approximate figure of $150,000 should not be paid to the company today.

“This is equivalent to a boss’s strike. When workers go on strike, they don’t get paid and neither should NZ Bus when it deliberately locks out workers and therefore the travelling public,” Mr Lee said.

Perfect way to put it. It is the boss’s who have created the “strike” not the employees so good response from the regional council.

Be afraid, very afraid

Posted on by Brad Heap

I have been very busy over the last few weeks and haven’t had much time to blog or do anything much online. But I have been trying to follow the Police Spying Scandal because as the days role on it is getting deeper and much murkier.

Okay for those who haven’t been following the news recently here is a quick update: Last Sunday the Sunday Star Times (Newspaper) revealed that an key political activist was actually a police spy who had infutrated a number of left wing groups. He was reporting to the SIG a group set up after the 9/11 attacks in America to combat terrorism. The Police immediately claimed that the SIG was acting within its boundaries protecting NZ and not spying on activist groups. Since then it has been revealed that the Police through its SIG Counter-Terrorism Spying Taskforce has been spying on a number of political action groups, climate change groups, Greenpeace, the Green Party (yes the political party in parliament), a number of major workers Unions incluing UNITE, and the NDU, and students’ associations especially VUWSA.

Now this is nuts. There is a clear boundary between what is terrorism, what is a terrorist action, what is a threat to national security and the actions of small political lobby groups. I personally believe that if you have done nothing wrong then you should have nothing to hide. But that is not the issue here, the issue is police used a counter terrorism unit to spy on many harmless, democratic and legal political lobby groups.

There are two columns in today’s HoS which add more to this story (and be sure to read the other articles as well there are heaps of them – google is showing over 100 stories written already (http://news.google.co.nz/news?oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&client=firefox-a&um=1&tab=wn&nolr=1&hl=en&q=police+spying&btnG=Search+News)

The first is Bill Ralston who calls for an inquiry into the issue:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10549093

Initially John Key, sensibly, said only those who “present a real or credible risk to the safety and security of communities” should be the subject of such investigations. He then passed the issue on to Judith Collins to sort out.

She spoke to Broad and promptly ruled out any need for an inquiry, saying Broad had assured her police were “meeting their responsibilities”. Hiding behind the old “Governments can’t interfere in police operations” line, Collins blithely accepted Broad’s assurance they were not targeting groups but individuals who might commit criminal acts.

Wrong. Emails from their spy show the SIG was targeting the activities of entire unions, including the EPMU, the CTU, the Maritime Union, and the Unite union.

Its spy also infiltrated the Green Party and reported on the plans of Greenpeace, conservation groups, climate change organisations, animal rights groups, and anti-war protesters.

Oh yes, police also used SIG surveillance to protect its own vested interests, targeting anti-Taser protests and investigating a man who is trying to take action against the police after he was pepper-sprayed.

The SIG was set up and received funding after 9/11 to combat the threat of terrorism. None of the groups listed even remotely come near that description. The SIG seems oblivious to the fact that peace groups are, by their very nature, largely peaceful in intent and, ironically, one of its targets, Greenpeace, is the only victim of terrorism in New Zealand.

You have to watch those dangerous unions. In emails to the SIG, its spy breathlessly reports that the NDU and EPMU were having a day of action and locked-out workers would be planning pickets and making banners. Shocking criminal acts that surely imperilled the safety and security of the community.

What has happened is that, in the hysteria after 9/11, the police got a big budget to set up the SIG which then found it had no real terrorism to combat. To protect its budget and its reason for being, the SIG and police then busied themselves with trivia.

Collins has more than enough evidence to show the SIG was acting outside its brief. She should set up a ministerial inquiry, with a QC or someone like the Ombudsman, verify the facts and get serious about cutting costs by axing the unit.

Yes that is right. The police are spying on the only group ever in NZ to have been targeted by terrorism! (and for those with poor knowledge of NZ history it is a reference to the 1986 bombing of the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland Harbour by the French Secret Service.

The second column is by Matt McCarten head of the Unite Union and a victim of the police spying:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10549080

These groups which were being spied on are incorporated societies carrying out legitimate work on behalf of their members and supporters. They are democratic and transparent. No one has ever accused them of criminal behaviour, let alone terrorism.

…

Gilchrist started collecting information on our union three years ago. At that time we were running our SupersizeMyPay campaign, set up to abolish youth wages and raise the minimum wage to $12 an hour.

Through a combination of employer negotiations, community demonstrations and parliamentary lobbying, we won. Tens of thousands of workers have since had their wages lifted by more than $3 an hour, in large part because of this campaign, and youth wages were scrapped.

Are our spies seriously suggesting minimum wage workers and school kids working in fast-food restaurants were part of a budding al Qaeda network?

The actions of this spy unit go to the heart of our democracy. Frankly, their actions are worse than the so-called danger they claim to want to protect us from. What could be more of a threat to our society than a secret police force paying undercover “Walter Mitty-type” informants to infiltrate and secretly report on civil and political groups? Isn’t that what totalitarian governments do?

…

A meat worker who ran as a communist candidate in the last election was detained at Auckland Airport for four hours after returning from Australia. She was subjected to a humiliating strip search. Nothing was found. But what was disturbing is the Customs officers spent the whole time grilling her on her political activity and were well aware of her history.

The only way you can explain this is that a file has been compiled on her and given to other state agencies. If this doesn’t worry New Zealanders, we’re in real trouble.

…

The new Prime Minister, John Key, should agree to the request by the targeted unions for a full inquiry. If the unit has been spying on organisations carrying out lawful work, it should be disbanded and the Police Commissioner sacked.

In future, when our political leaders tell us we need greater police power to fight terrorism, just be aware it has little to do with keeping us safe and everything to do with keeping us under control.

And so we end up back with a scene from V For Vendetta.

People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.

Workers rights. Yeah Right.

Posted on by Brad Heap

Today’s HoS has an excellent piece on workers rights by Matt McCarten

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10546860

They want the Government to immediately allow small businesses to have unfettered right to dismiss any new worker in the first three months of their employment. That means that at any one time, 100,000 New Zealanders would have no legal rights if they are dismissed, no matter the reason.

This is outrageous and would allow exploitation and intimidation for those workers, particularly at the low end of the market.

They say employers are reluctant to take on new employees if they can’t terminate them if it doesn’t work out. Nonsense. The current law has a 90-day trial period for workers.

…

That’s just the first step. Here are some of their juicer demands: remove the union’s right to negotiate a collective agreement on behalf of its members; restrict a union’s ability to educate members on their rights; restrict their workers’ representatives from coming on to worksites; allow employers to refuse a worker’s request to have their union fees deducted from their pay.

Despite all of this, if employees do join a union, the employers want the right to pass on all union terms and conditions negotiated to non-union workers.

If there’s a strike or lockout of the union members by an employer they want the right to bring in scabs to break their employees’ resolve.

If the workers still don’t bend, it’s proposed that the employer can just divide up the union wage agreement and pass it on to each worker separately. This action would effectively end a dispute on an employer’s terms.

The power in any employment relationship is always with the employer and that’s why every civilised country has laws to protect workers from exploitation. Business NZ is demanding the unbridled right to control their workers. We used to call this relationship slavery.

It is really worthwhile reading the full article an insightful but also scary piece of potential reality