Angry Pike River families denounce report
Upset families of the 29 men killed at Pike River “cannot accept” findings of a report that absolves government employees of any blame for the 2010 tragedy.
Despite “systemic failures” and “inactions” that contributed to the Pike River Mine disaster, no one at the old Department of Labour or Ministry of Economic Development will be held accountable, families of the workers were told last night.
The report was highly critical of both departments and prompted an apology to the families – but their spokesman, Bernie Monk, called it hollow and said there should be accountability.
We should all be horrified and incandescent with rage over 29 sons, fathers, uncles, friends, cousins, lovers and whanau not coming home from work and we should all be disgusted with the utter lack of accountability for the deregulated work environment these men and their families were betrayed by.
What we must also be aware of is how that deregulated work environment will soon be the norm throughout NZ if John Key gets his way.
What most NZers do not understand (because it is never explained by the msm) is that the TPPA Key is desperate to sign isn’t actually a trade deal at all. Of the 29 chapters, only 5 have anything to do with trade, the remaining chapters are about deregulating the rest of the NZ economy low enough for American Corporations to enter our market domestically, assimilate our industries and dominate.
The TPPA isn’t a trade deal, it’s a national security leash being foisted upon us by a paranoid America who sees it as a means of limiting Chinese influence and expansion into the Pacific. It’s total lack of economic benefit to us means little to them.
While Key is visiting Pike River and mouthing apologies, he’s trying to sign ‘trade’ deals that will make the self-regulated horror of Pike River the norm for every industry.
I fear the lives of these 29 men will be but the first page in a long book of industrial sorrow being written by the National Party as it crushes Unions and the regulation working people need to stay safe.
That seems to be true of all the FTAs that we’ve signed including belonging to the WTO. From what I can make out, they’re all more concerned with freeing up the international movement of money and foreign ownership than actual trade. Of course, the benefits of free-trade are seriously being questioned with models showing that international trade leaves the world worse off.
I hear that we’ve already got the highest rate of workplace death in the OECD and most of those seem to ramp home to lack of standards. If Key and National get their way, I suspect we can see that already high number of deaths increase.
When the bosses are left to do as they choose with people forced to work for them through a punitive welfare system then the bosses will cut corners on safety and they won’t be held to account for the deaths that they cause because the legislation would have been written in such a way as to prevent it.
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