First casualty of John Banks – the Government’s war on Unions

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Oh happy day (oh happy day)
Oh happy day (oh happy day)
When Jesus washed (when Jesus washed)
When Jesus washed (when Jesus washed)
Jesus washed (when Jesus washed)
Washed my sins away (oh happy day)
Oh happy day (oh happy day)

I open this blog with a wee tune that I’m sure the right religious Banksy himself would have whistled on his way to committing legislative hate each day because hearing that the first casualty of Banksy being found guilty is that the Government can’t push their venomous war on the Unions through Parliament before the election fills me with a special  joy.

The Employment Relations Amendment Bill is a vicious little bit of law that National have carefully crafted to feed their redneck rump voter base who love to hate Unions. It was aimed to come up just before the elections so the more feral chunk of National  felt electorally aroused enough to vote John Key for another 3 years. It’s a spiteful needless dog whistle bit of law that removes workers rights to tea breaks, allows bad bosses to walk away from good faith bargaining and restricts unions access to workplaces.  It’s ugly, unnecessary and gives bosses even more power under this Government.

That National can’t blitzkrieg this latest hate law dressed up as legislation through Parliament because of the corruptness of their mate in ACT  fills me with a deep merriment. I can already hear the screams of Whaleoil and Farrar from here and it’s music to my ears.

 

16 COMMENTS

  1. I heard some absolute tosser representing Employers and Manufacturers Association having a whine, saying this legislation was important to give “Flexibility”, I don’t know why he didn’t just say “exploitation” instead, however honesty is not what we hear from business nowadays.

    Not quite sure how denying people the ability to negotiate employment conditions or even something as small as a break is going to make New Zealand a better place but hey, its every man for himself.

    You are right, a nasty hateful bit of law that will ensure that we don’t go ahead as a nation but backwards under National.

    • it always raises the question of – why enact laws that do little else but enable bad employers to get away with being bad employers?

      • Totally agree what is there agenda???? These are the people who pay the tax that pay that makes the country grow that the National government wants. There taxes also pays their salaries to. So exploiting workers further seems to go against the governments best interest. It makes no sense at all…

        • Now one of the sacred mantra’s of neo liberalism is that if a business cannot compete through poor management ,or various other reasons , then market forces would ensure that business would either have to become more efficient or cease to exist.

          I wont digress into the ‘too big to fail’ and Govt bailouts of large private banks and other companies here..Ill leave it to you to ponder the hypocrisy and colossal flaws in neo liberalism ideology instead.

          However..if one was to take that ideology to its final conclusion and apply it to the New Zealand situation regarding the encouragement of paying peasants wages, think on this ………

          – Using tools such as the Employment Relations Act , one would have to ask this : ‘is my employer either very greedy , …..or is he such a poor manager and lacking in marketing skills such that he cannot afford to pay a living wage ?’

          Or is it simply that he knows he can rely on Working for Families whereby he can rest assured that some worker chump down the road at another business paying taxes will help subsidize his business avarice or ineptitude and offset the already miserable excuse for wages he dishes out ?

          Hence , …we start to see the glaring double standards at work in neo liberal thinking , the real motives behind passing such hateful acts and the real reasons why such legislation was needed to detooth the unions.

          • Following on from this, the only reason this scenario can work under the deregulated market is the threat of moving business offshore, at least…in regards to the bigger concerns.

            To do this, a removal of import tariffs is essential..this opens the market up to cheap imports that means our smaller businesses cannot compete, thus-ly becoming a reason to drive down wages…to do that..you have to destroy union power.

            And to do that…you need a tool to destroy that power…enter the Employment Contracts Act and then the Employment Relations Act. The end of general collective bargaining and instead individual contracts.

            Another good name for this could be the Divide and Conquer Act…as practiced by the Romans.

            • It actually makes sense to ‘move business offshore’ – particularly to countries with large populations and access to transport networks. One of the killers for small enterprises in NZ is that big stretch of water between us and Anywhere Else.

              So long as the brains and skills stay here to create, invent, innovate and develop the next product for mass production and marketing overseas.

              But that’s not the Kiwi Way. Unfortunately for us. ‘Brain drain’. ‘Extended OE’ – and the over-pricing of education, apprenticeships, and upskilling, back here, is what we currently have, and too few are addressing.

              BTW – there are many, many jobs that already don’t have reliable breaks, particularly service work where the staffing levels are tight.

              I just wish the various unions would clamber into the 21st century and start dealing with modern issues, as well as the ongoing ones they know too well. Perhaps even shocking employers by showing they know as much and more about how to run a profitable enterprise, without cheating workers, as any employer. Make themselves into allies instead of adversaries. We might all win, then.

              • I agree unions need to get into the 21st century…but damn do we need them. They need to get on the internet and make it easy to join and pay. And communicate with each other. But you talk about unions as if they are a separate entity to workers. Unions are made up of and funded by workers. If people don’t join, they are weak and poorly funded and not very effective. An injection of youth would help.

    • Flexibility is a just another word for a worker being on call 24 hours a day but not getting any extra reward for it. These guys dream about this at night! They certainly must be feeling a bit grumpy at the moment.

  2. Agree totally. It was all that you say, and more. It was also a carefully planned continuation of the all out ASSAULT on the rights of the ordinary Joes and Jos, the “little people”, for whom this regime has nothing but comtempt.

  3. Here’s another wee tune for Martyn to whistle if and when we dump the rest of Key’s Krew Kut Barbershop Choir …

    “Happy days are here again
    The skies above are clear again
    So let’s sing a song of cheer again
    Happy days are here again

    Altogether shout it now
    There’s no one
    Who can doubt it now
    So let’s tell the world about it now
    Happy days are here again”

  4. I hope the Left is going to campaign on the slogan:

    A vote for Key – A vote for no more tea breaks

    or

    He promised you a brighter future – Now he’s promising you no more tea breaks

  5. Cheering for Banks’ political demise, for utu, could justifiably viewed as bad taste, and not the Kiwi way.

    Welcoming his departure from Parliament, with relief, to preserve what little remains to protect workers’ rights – fair enough.

    • When I first heard of Banks being found guilty I was a little surprised fpr some reason, my second response was ‘ He was such a colorful character and had been part of the political furniture for so long…he must have achieved some positive results…..I hope he is given some form of leniency…’

      As I considered it more deeply and read articles about what he actually did to bolster neo liberalism , his racist comments stereotyping young Polynesian and Maori men living in South Auckland as constantly planning burgs , his confidence and supply votes for National in regards such bills as mentioned above…my attitude hardened and I lost all notion of sentimentality …

      The man knew exactly who he was playing for and its also not the kiwi way to have a Waco Texas style invasion on a blokes home in Coatsville just to curry favor with another nations 5 eye spy network.

      No..its not utu at all….simply that for far too long these types of characters have mistakenly taken kiwi’s reserve and relaxed easy going manner as some kind of weakness.

      Well – were not weak, we don’t take kindly to being exploited and paid peasants wages , and we sure as hell aint Mexicans with bloody cell phones either, mate .

  6. All of a sudden National announces it plans to clamp down on bad employers who don’t pay their workers their legal entitlements such as holiday pay, etc. This comes a few days after they abandoned (for now) legislation that gave bad employers greater powers to short change their workers. National is now the workers’ party! I’d better stop now before I die from laughter.

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