The Meatworkers Union and Wharfies didn’t give a fuck who was in power to stand up for their workers rights.
They went on strike and forced industrial action when Key was in power.
Isn’t it a pity the rest of the Union movement didn’t have their spine and backbone?
With a female left wing PM who is pregnant in power, aren’t the remaining Unions suddenly brave and tough, the very same Unions who wouldn’t fart without John Key’s permission.
This is the curse of Labour. A Union movement too terrified to do anything while National are in power builds and builds and builds resentment and grievances until Labour gain power and suddenly everything has to be solved immediately.
If Unions wanted real muscle, they wouldn’t be allowing themselves to be defanged by Labour’s Fair Pay Agreements.
When you consider the horror of the meth hysteria and the punitive spite vomited upon beneficiaries, can HNZ, WINZ and MSD possibly go on strike too? In their cases you could actually argue them being on strike is actually the best thing to ever happen to those they torture.
The PSA is on some shaky ground here and seem to think they are held in a higher standing than they actually are.
The NZ Union movement never recovered from the loss of Helen Kelly to have the strategic sense and tactical smarts to navigate the Unions, that loss of leadership is starting to show.
Yes I heard the interview on RNZ this morning and the spoke person for the Nurses was asked why did they wait till Labour got in. While I have respect for our Nurses I am saddened that they left it for 9 yrs before they started protesting when this should have happened 9 years ago and then we wouldn’t be in such a mess. The spokes person said they are at a crisis point, really, haven’t they been at that point for 9-10 yrs.
+100
Ditto – I can’t believe they waited until now!
Exactly what I’ve been saying – why are they suddenly going on strike now that Labour is in government? There was all the more reason to go on strike when National was in government and to go on strike now (not that I am saying they shouldn’t have the right to) makes it look to the general public like there is more chaos when Labour is in government
yup
I could not agree more. Where the hell was the Nurses union 2008 to 2017? Where????
You have got one of the best offers ever and you throw a tantrum and roll around on the floor squealing.
Fuck it, give it to teachers, cops, Ambulance staff and ever other poor bastard who lived the past decade without the cost of living being a factor! I can assure Nurses, others want it!
agreed…together with doctors under Nactional they watched the health system go down the gurgler for patient rights and did nothing
@ XRAY.
Bull shit. Nurses deserve every cent they get. And more. Australia understands that. That’s why Nu Zillind loses our nurses to them.
How much money would it take for you to wipe some poor bastards arse? To dress some terrible infection? To give comfort to the dying?
And I think their strategy is working fine. National are simply a cruel cadre of narcissistic and sadist losers who would love to crush nurses for the sport of it, or anyone else trying to use Unions for protection. Labour, on the other hand, is a relatively safe harbour to express concerns or try for a fair go.
The real reason the natzo’s fear watersiders and meat workers is because they process and transport our primary industry goods to our off-shore markets, the life blood of the urban millionaire and billionaire swindler-cult.
When farmers unionise and stand shoulder to shoulder with their down stream service industry? That’s the end of national. That’s the end of neo liberalism. That’d be the end of the Kiwi-As millionaire and billionaire swindler-cult. And that’d be the beginning of a new age of prosperity for NZ/AO. Mark my words
Like blue blood Nat voting farmers are ever going to unify against their own party! That is utter bull shit!
And here ACC covers all risk to medical professionals, but overseas including Australia they must have their own indemnity insurance tho practice lest they get sued for malpractice and it ain’t cheap. So compare apple’s with apples.
Good point, well made about the surge of militancy under a Labour Government (which plays into National’s meme about industrial unrest).
The line about de-fanging is a beat up. Fair Pay Agreements will deliver to the working poor, whether or not they are in a union. No right to strike has been removed and given the nature of the Fair Pay Agreements process, there is simply no need for industrial action. However, in the second phase, union bargaining on top of the Fair Pay Agreements will still have that tool available for use. So no change for those that want to scrap and benefits anyway for the rest.
It’s a win/win for workers.
We should not make the fact that nurses didn’t strike during Key’s rule something to be held against them today.
The Nurses struck in the past during Ruthonomics rule.
The crisis in health has got much worse under Key’s rule.
The big majority of nurses have now voted for a strike.
I would say that this action has been forced on the officials by rank and file pressure, so let’s hope the will of the rank and file is not sabotaged by the union officials who have signed up to Labour’s arbitration plans.
Given the decline of the Unions since 1991 when the Nurses last went on strike, its a bloody miracle that any unions have put up a fight.
It’s easy to say that they should have like Meatworkers and Wharfies gone on strike during Key’s rule. But those unions have a long history of industrial action going back to the Red Fed. They also have the advantage of being seen as up against ruthless employers whose health they don’t have to care for. And note they struck within the industrial law of the day.
Instead of joining the right wing brigade to find reasons why the Nurses should settle now and wait for another Helen Kelly to arrive, what about some unconditional support for thousands of embattled nurses?
The only reason that the Labour Coalition cannot find another half-billion to rescue the hospitals is that they have failed to stand up to the rule of finance capital and supinely obey its rules for profiteering.
They could use ACC funds, they could impose a capital gains tax, they could borrow cheaply – plenty of options for anyone with the guts to stand up to the parasitic gentry and bankers that rule this country.
So I say go for it nurses. Show that workers have to stand up, unionise and strike to get a ‘fair go’ under capitalism administered by National or Labour.
Last night, quite early on Tony Amos’ programme at RadioLive, I heard several callers express their lack of respect for what NZ nurses are doing. Then I heard a very highly qualified nurse of 25 yrs experience, explain the various factors that “got in the way” during the last 14 years of nurses being able to take action on their own behalf. It was very explanatory – I don’t know why the Nurses Organisation hasn’t made such a clear explanation public before now. If any reader can find a way to access that session of Amos’ (I can’t find it) it would be very clear to any person as to why NZ nurses have “had it up to here”. As a (retd.) NZRN I have much empathy with them.
It’s a fair question, and as a former union delegate, it’s one that troubles me. Surely the time to march in guns blazing is when you’re under the punitive gaze of an openly anti-union government, one that continuously does its level best to undermine labour organisations and kow-tow to exploitative employers. That’s when you stand up and scream your righteous indignation. But no. Let’s wait until Labour get in so we can talk tough, puff out our chests and put the screws on a government that repeatedly stated they’d make changes to employment law in order to redress the imbalance of power, and the frankly disgusting conditions under which some workers toil. They’re trying to help and you’re kneecapping them at every turn. I don’t begrudge nurses better pay and conditions — Lord knows they’ve been doing the hard yards for far too long. But unions that are only now crying foul are giving the hyenas of the Right exactly what they want — yet another reason to say “I told you so!” Seriously guys, you’re a bit fucking late to the party.
Simon Bridges must be cackling like a loon.
Why now? An interesting thought. Were the Unions afraid, intimidated, or neutered under the last regime?
The cleverest thing Labour could do is settle a pay award when it becomes apparent that National will win the election. At that moment, give the nurses (and cops, firefighters, etc) whatever they want, plus more.
That’ll bind the Nats to honour whatever agreement Labour signs up to and would stymie any promise of tax cuts from Joyce and Bridges. Sorted.
And by pressing more out of Labour led governments, those public service unions will achieve exactly what the less powerful and less vocal in society, those on crappy benefits and the minimum wage or just above will fear the most.
They will prove again, the unions that are strongest and closest to Labour, e.g. teachers’ and nurses’ unions and the likes, will get deals that improve their earnings and conditions, while others in the private sector (most bullied into individual contracts) are left out in the cold.
They will provide the prejudice that the Nats feed to the public again and again, that Labour cave in to the unions (that is the ones mentioned above), so Labour are no good, and do not deserve to be running in government, as the taxpayer will foot the bill (all of us financing the public sector).
A strong workers’ movement looks somewhat different, has workers of all sectors unite, not having some push ahead when it is opportune, to get better deals under a softer Labour led government, and leave others fight their separate battles no matter when and what party runs the government.
That is going to serve the Nats, they will welcome division and opportunism.
Where was the joint union push for raising the minimum wage more to something like a living wage during 9 years under National?
The DHBs offer of 9 percent pay rise to avoid nurses’ strike isnt 9%!
Arrrh No it isnt!
What it breaks too is this;
3% for the past 12 months to August
3% for 2018/2019
and then, only some get the $2000.00.
And the senior management who do fuck all are getting offered 15.9%!
I hear a chant coming on, “Hey, hey, ho,ho, Grant Brookes has got to Go!”
Cos they know if they went on strike under National, National would have a/ straight out told them to f off; b/ happily banked all the unpaid wages, and c/ used the strikes as excuse to screw working conditions and unions even further as the tame right-wing media buries the public in bullshit.
Cos the PSA know that under National (whom no self respecting nurse would ever vote for) that a/ National would simply tell them to f off b/ would happily bank all unpaid wages; c/ would use their tame media and dirty politics to demonise the unions and intimidate individual leaders; d/ would ensure said leaders “never work in this town again” and e/ would use it as ab excuse to pass all sorts of draconian legislation and f/ the party would hold a vindictive grudge for years.
Aside from all that , sure striking under the government of the “smiling assassin” John Key would have a brilliant idea. As I recall, the nurses struck under National last year didn’t they?
Cos the PSA know that under National (whom no self respecting nurse would ever vote for) that a/ National would simply tell them to f off b/ would happily bank all unpaid wages; c/ would use their tame media and dirty politics to demonise the unions and intimidate individual leaders; d/ would ensure said leaders “never work in this town again” and e/ would use it as ab excuse to pass all sorts of draconian legislation and f/ the party would hold a vindictive grudge for years.
Aside from all that , sure striking under the government of the “smiling assassin” John Key would have a brilliant idea. As I recall, the nurses struck under National last year didn’t they?
While I would dearly love for these three agencies (make it four – Education) to be locked out, pay stopped –
Who’s fit to run the behemoth around the track and help all the people needing emergency help? Who’s set up with enough reach and office space to cope with the clients? Keep track of the details?
Scary, eh?
If we do have The Big One, and there’s major disruption to payments, assistance and even protection – do we have Plan B? And does it work?
That’s a grim message, Mr Bradbury: with friends like these unions who needs Dirty Politics? They’re simply proving what the great Sanctimonious Sector knows as gospel truth – there’s more upheaval when Labour’s in. Keep them out because they’re run by the unions and unions are Bad.
(The Sanctimonious will look at any serendipitous flow-on from these actions and ascribe it to being rewarded for Virtue, Hard Graft and Brown-nose Loyalty to The Boss. So many are like that…)
Too cunning to be sheep. More like piranha.
I too am wondering why the Nurses Union weren’t sticking it to the National Government these past 9 years.
I may be wrong, but I have a feeling that many of the Nurses Union Members would not class themselves as working class – maybe that’s why they let this crisis develop – they wouldn’t want to upset the National Government that they support.
Someone please prove me wrong.
+100 MAAMA
I too am wondering why the Nurses Union weren’t sticking it to the National Government these past 9 years.
I may be wrong, but I have a feeling that many of the Nurses Union Members would not class themselves as working class – maybe that’s why they let this crisis develop – they wouldn’t want to upset the National Government that they support.
Someone please prove me wrong.
I have one tentative explanation as to why the nurses did not go out on strike under National.
Perhaps it was because they thought that National would use the occasion to generate anti public health sentiment and do what they REALLY want to do – privatise the entire health system.
I have one tentative explanation as to why the nurses did not go out on strike under National.
Perhaps it was because they thought that National would use the occasion to generate anti public health sentiment and do what they REALLY want to do – privatise the entire health system.
Comments are closed.