Ngati Whatua leader Parata Hawke makes the links between those struggling against a racist capitalist system.
Maori solidarity with Chinese Migrant workers struggle
Ngati Whatua leader Parata Hawke makes the links between those struggling against a racist capitalist system.
FFS, you can hardly interpret one Maori voice to speak for all Maoridom. And this whole saga about those migrant workers stranded here, it has been one of past and present government’s failures and makings, as they allow too much BS going on.
One of the Chinese migrant workers even told MSM that he paid about 40k (I suppose in dollars) to get work here, so if that is the case, we have corruption and other crimes being committed. Who is the victim here, the too easily allowed in low skilled migrant worker (they were portrayed as mere construction labourers), or the NZ worker who gets presented this kind of competition, driving down wages and conditions?
I have lost all faith in UNITE Union due to this involvement, you guys need your heads read, supporting those BS artists, now calling on NZers to donate via Give a Little and telling them, we owe them jobs here, where they were not even invited by the people of NZ.
Well you can blame the many dumb dumb NZders Marc that voted for those national mongrels for 9 years despite seeing people homeless, jobless etc what did they expect
Just because youre a xenophobic dickhead who cant understand the identical problems that Chinese workers face. I guess you prefer the policies against Chinese workers during the gold rush days that made them second or third class citizens.
At the moment the minimum wage is on a reasonably steep upward trend compared with recent years so I guess thats your theory about lowering wages out the window. The amount of wages paid is not a supply and demand thing. The government can quite easily mandate for higher wages and does. The cries of the employers are a little meaningless when inequality is still increasing.
Pretty pathetic to blame a handful of migrants for low wages
Trouble is that there are such employers that bring in their own conditions and do not even abide by the law to pay the minimum wage. They rip off the workers by over charging them for accommodation and so forth, leaving little than a pittance for them to take home, or to send to their relatives overseas.
Immigration NZ may offer the right kind of guidance, but it is in some cases not being followed, as we can see:
https://www.immigration.govt.nz/employ-migrants/explore-your-options/finding-and-hiring-workers-overseas/getting-ready-to-hire
We have had stories about staff in some ethnic restaurants and take aways being exploited, we have heard such stories about farm workers, horticulture workers, and so forth.
The problem is that immigrant workers are often dangled the carrot of permanent residence in front of them, so they feel they need to make the extra effort and prove themselves, and in at least some cases make compromises they should never make.
I only mentioned Chinese workers here, as those are the workers the post is about. I would have the same reservation to any other workers coming here, to ‘prove’ themselves, and to expose themselves to exploitation (often by their own fellow countrymen) and perhaps have the hope they may get permanent residency or extended visas, whether they may come from Ireland, the Philippines, India, South Africa, Chile or any other place.
Surely, talking about a return to the discrimination of the gold digger era is absurd, but you have made your point.
As for your argument for minimum wage increases, yes, it is an improvement, but we are still below the living wage, that unions and other lobby groups now tend to demand.
So your anger and rage should be directed at the employers and bureaucrats and politicians and all enablers of the current exploitative class and never at the workers who are brought here by being told god only knows what lies and promises and have the same desperate problems as any worker in NZ. Good on the union for making that connection with all workers all over the world. Uniting workers above the arbitrary identification of nationality is critically important and is the surest way to get positive change. If workers are continually backstabbing each other on the grounds of nationality then there really isnt any hope
You dream of the ideal human being, the ‘noble worker’, who will respect all other workers with respect and dignity. Even workers stab each other in the back, I have seen plenty of it, and it happens all the time, if it were different, we would not have the BS that goes on.
Keep dreaming your kind of workers’ paradise Nirwana.
More is needed than dreaming.
Far from being a dream its the only logical and rational way to have any hope of making change. If you allow those in whose interest it is to exploit workers to also split workers into self identifying groups whether they be along national or religious or ethnic or gender or whatever lines and then engage in backstabbing across those arbitrary lines those that are exploiting you will be howling with laughter cause that is the plan and its worked for a long time.
Just looking at the race category of self identification because its often the most inflammatory and easiest for those wanting to keep the downtrodden as downtrodden to ignite.
Michelle Alexander in her excellent book The New Jim Crow writes
“The most ardent proponents of racial hierarchy have consistently succeeded in implementing new racial caste systems by triggering a collapse of resistance across the political spectrum. This feat has been achieved largely by appealing to the racism and vulnerability of lower-class whites, a group of people who are understandably eager to ensure that they never find themselves trapped at the bottom of the American hierarchy.” (pg 22)
So you may feel justified in your self identified silo but you should also be aware that you are being played and that those that are playing you are very aware of the danger to themselves if all the silos were to unite.
I thoroughly recommend the first couple chapters of this book as a study in how old the divide and conquer creation of silos is and also how effective. You can go on about idealistic fantasy if you like but if you refuse to take a look at where and who the real enemy is and just react to every stimulus that those in positions of power put before you then its just gonna be same old same Im afraid.
If you want to look at the start of the above book a pdf of the first 70 or 80 pages can be found here
https://www.vanderbilt.edu/ctp/The_New_Jim_Crow.pdf
Yes, I am sure, prehistoric humans were all warmly embracing international socialists, they never competed, never fought each other, they lived in endless harmony, same as those humans living in the antiquity and so forth?!
Have you ever wondered why and how there can be a divide and rule approach being used by some? It is perhaps basic strategy in an inevitable fight for survival of whosoever deems him- or herself as the fittest and most deserving to rule.
Even collectively organised humans will have to use that approach to protect the ones belonging to the group, as having all humans on the planet reach solidarity and equality must be the greatest pipe dream of all times.
Charity starts at home, the saying goes, I wonder why.
Where’s my comment?
The businesses paying the minimum wages soon to be $20 p/h are competing against businesses that have the labour PAYING them $30k per annum to work through these scams. The race to the bottom continues. Soon you will struggle to see a dairy or a takeaway that is NOT being staffed by migrant workers to name a few low wage industries that seem to have a clear preference on ethnicity for labour.
If one or two ethnic groups are 30% of the population but somehow staffs 80% of most NZ low cost businesses and 50% of them working those low cost businesses or sole traders types are foreign workers working those businesses, shouldn’t the race relations be asking questions as well as other government departments?
And again, that is an easily fixed problem by the government if they have the will. Getting angry at the exploited workers because they believed the crap they were told is a bit pathetic. Why not get angry at the exploiters and the government. If its legal to accept these sorts of payments then it can easily be made illegal. If its too hard to monitor private employment contractors then make it only able to happen through a government department. Its not the workers fault and they fully deserve our compassion. Get angry at those that are at fault – the exploiters of human misery
Where is the UNITE Union for children being exploited?
https://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.wordpress.com/2018/03/13/child-labour-in-new-zealand-not-only-a-thing-of-the-past-although-not-widespread-alive-and-well-in-nz-in-2018-special-post/
You hypocrites do not seen to care one bit.
So Joe, where does it start or end? Slave labour everywhere, inviting them will NOT solve the problem:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7LclQRn3lg
NO MORE CHINESE IMMIGRANTS BREAKING LAWS IN NEW ZEALAND, THANK YOU:
https://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.wordpress.com/2018/03/13/child-labour-in-new-zealand-not-only-a-thing-of-the-past-although-not-widespread-alive-and-well-in-nz-in-2018-special-post/
Whether they compete and drive down wages, whether they undermine our culture and standards and laws, it is all not acceptable. Unite Union got this very wrong, screw you lot, you have lost all sympathy from my point of view, I now oppose Unite Union for betrayal of NZ workers.
I love it when you get angry @ Marc – it’s SO butch. And so compassionate, caring and sharing.
A rebel with a cause. Solidarite
End of Story!!!! So there!!!
And Unite Union will say good riddance to you. Youve made a good case for more migrant workers if it means we can dilute the likes of you. Give me 1000 Chinese over you
“Give me 1000 Chinese over you”
Your present government with its ‘flagship’ ‘KiwiBuild’ (perhaps rather ‘Chinese-Filipino-Irish Build’ is more appropriate) is working overtime to meet your desires.
Truth is most Kiwis do not give a damned shit, as long as the middle class get their desired, cheap goods and ‘affordable’ homes. Phil Twyford is a criminal, to allow this to happen in New Zealand, he is a BS artist, a hypocrite and liar in my humble view.
Pity the unions (and Government) had little to say when they closed the Auckland university libraries with a loss of 20 jobs… But we don’t need a nation of skilled musicians and artists and architects and planners just food preparation and fast food workers with a ‘masters’ from one of these new courses aimed at migrants, which are booming as people now work so many jobs (or are homeless) so now rely on takeaways for food.
Surely if there are scams with people bringing in workers under false pretences they should be stopped, it made a crime, and made to pay the money back to the workers and the costs to the state?
This senario was cynically predictable from the day one. The day labour undertook to rebuild what National had destroyed – housing -wise, but of course most had to see it to believe this would happen, as usual in NZ.
I’m with Marc, one ‘leader’ a consensus does not make.
Yeah, well. With NZDF they it is, with the funding it has, puts the men and woman of NZDF in a corner when people talk tough and strong.
Sam , you’re an always interesting commentator, but I sometimes find it hard to understand what you’re saying
Just the wording and grammar,I get the feeling you’re a sympatico kind of person and I appreciate your input
Sometimes i get a flare up of mild dyslexia but most of the time it’s me fighting with predictive texting and devices I use. Most of the time I’m happy to make corrections when prompted.
But it’s the potential for a trade war turning hot that no one is factoring into there calculations.
So the question is, is it reasonable to make the 20 odd Chinese migrant workers stay comfortable and permanent.
Or stick to immigration laws and work place laws. Prosecute the labour hire company, compensate the workers and give them a free flight home.
Economic disruption like these examples are no good for anyone. China is not in the best position because the US just chose a maniac for a president that constantly over calculates, China could start courting it’s us in NZ because the US is not reliable anymore and if the US goes full retard China could still trade in Asia but this would make it harder, Also I doubt New Zealand will benefit from this kind of backwards view of policy.
Like the Green Party, one of the reasons union membership and importance is dying is that unions have become distracted with overseas trips and international exposure and seem more interested in showing solidarity with Chinese workers, Palestinians, workers of every nation. In fact they have so much work to do helping other nationals, they seem to fail to organise enough, to help Kiwi workers who have been screwed for 30 years.
Not sure how supporting foreign workers into NZ helps Maori, a cynical person might think it is really doing the opposite????
By all means help the Chinese workers get their money back aka $40k a piece (they don’t sound as poor as most Kiwi workers, just saying) and support the government to close the immigration loopholes of getting people here who can’t get work, (instead of somehow doing the opposite by loosening work visas so that they encourage more unemployed from other countries to come to NZ and tout for jobs) but from helping Chinese nationals to get work visas, or supporting Indian nationals with bogus degrees from NZ, when many Kiwis are on the breadline, high student debt and the working poor are queuing at the mission to get a food parcel, is not exactly helping Kiwi workers.
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