National Iwi Chairs Forum and Council of Trade Unions announce day of solidarity
The National Iwi Chairs Forum and the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions (CTU) Te Kauae Kaimahi have announced a national day of solidarity between iwi and unions in resistance to the “government’s ongoing attacks on Māori and workers.”
The national day of solidarity, Rā Whakamana, will take place on the 28 October, to “reaffirm the tino rangatiratanga of Tangata Whenua and protect the rights and wellbeing of all workers”.
Rā Whakamana will be the first time that iwi and unions have collaborated on a national scale.
The NZ Union movement is finally fighting back against a Political Right who are only focused on destroying them
All sectors are now striking and NZCTU have aligned with the National Iwi Chairs Forum alongside working with the Palestinian Rights protest movement and it’s about time.
The NZ Union movement has never confronted a dead eyed free market acolyte quite like Brooke van Velden before. They have busied themselves with pay equity lawfare (it’s easier to hire lawyers than convince workers to join Unions and far less militant), which is fine and dandy, until it is not.
Brooke is the not.
Fresh from kneecapping Pay Equity, Brooke is back destroying WorkSafe and reducing it from an enforcer to an adviser.
50-60 workers die every year at work and another 700 to 900 from work-related deaths, and what’s the Unions response?
Begging Brooke to give them back Pay Equity!
At what point does the Union movement admit it and call Van Velden out as a bad faith actor who has zero interest in negotiating a deal for worker rights, and instead wants to crush them?
But protesting isn’t enough, it’s the start.
The reality is that Unions are simply begging to get the little they gained back rather than push for a whole new workers rights policy platform.
it is not enough to merely beg for what this Government have stolen, the Left must fight for more!
The Unions have told themselves law-fare using pay parity legislation is their only strength, well, the Government just destroyed that and all the Unions are now left with is gasping for oxygen using gills like fish flopping on the ground.
I have warned that Crooke Van Velden is different.
I have warned this hard right Government is different.
I have argued the Union movement needs to fight for the right to strike because that is the ONLY power that actually works!
The NZ Union movement have to actually fight back because Van Velden is here to play for keeps, and despite the constant warnings that Van Velden was something far more malicious than the Unions had previously faced (a point TDB has been making monthly since this Government was elected), the Unions are still sitting on their hands!
Look, if the Unions start pushing for the right to strike by citing Van Velden’s extremism as the reason, they move the Overton Window.
This seems to be a concept the Unions are incapable of comprehending.
EVERY PUBLIC WORKER requires a 15% across the board pay rise ALONGSIDE more holidays ALONGSIDE more benefits so that we build public sector jobs that acknowledge their importance in the running of the State and Society.
To do that we need real political muscle and Union Leaders prepared to use that political muscle.
Our refusal to enact ILO Convention 87 on the right to strike, our lack of true leadership inside the Union movement and the failure to do anything other than perk up bureaucrats in Wellington has meant that when a truly right wing government appears with a radical agenda, there is no Union movement left to fight.
We have almost no rights to strike in this country.
No rights for sympathy strikes, no rights for wildcat strikes, no rights at all because we have a Union movement too frightened to actually fight for them.
I agree with the International Centre for Trade Union Rights (ICTUR) and their analysis of our weak union movement:
- Reforms to overturn the legislative undermining of freedom of association and the right to strike
- Amend the right to freedom of association in the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 to expressly include the right to collectively bargain and the right to strike in conformity with the law
- Include the right to decent work (including the right to gain one’s living by work which is freely chosen or accepted) in the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990
- Include the right to just and favourable conditions of work (as expressed in art 7 of ICESCR) in the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990
- Include other economic, social and cultural rights in the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990
- Review the role of the courts, and Parliament, in ensuring rights-consistent legislation – remove excessive sanctions from the social welfare system
- Ensure effective implementation of the principle of equal opportunity and treatment in employment, including for Māori workers
- Review immigration policies and regulations to remove barriers to migrant workers seeking assistance and remedies for labour exploitation and other rights abuses
A 10 day nationwide strike would do more for workers than 10 elections ever could.
This anti-Worker Government has pushed for lower wages, weaker safety regulations and deregulation of industry for their donors interests at the cost of those who make capitalism work – the actual workers!
Our economy, community and society are going to be forced into urgent adaptation thanks to global warming and AI.
Late Stage Capitalism is collapsing under the weight of its own greed.
Workers Rights are Human Rights.
We need to be kinder to individuals and crueller to corporations.
It is time for the Left to unite and fight back.
The Unions must take a stand!
We either fight back or allow this Government to continue implementing an extreme right wing agenda.
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