65% of voters support mega-strike
- A new Talbot Mills poll published this morning in The Post-$ has found 65% of voters support the ‘mega-strike’ planned by teachers, doctors and nurses tomorrow.
Let’s be very clear, the Union movement have been given no option but to Strike against this appalling Government!
Don’t tell me we don’t have the money to pay our workers more when this Government have borrowed billions for the military, landlords, Big Tobacco and rich tax cuts!
Judith, Simeon and Luxon fear the Mega Strike because the Unions have finally woken up to the fact that this anti-worker Government fronted by the Minister of Handmaids, Brooke van Velden is here to destroy them.
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.
Put this anti-worker agenda alongside the massive public service scalping, and the Union movement have no choice but to stand up and fight back and that scares the bejesus out of the Right.
The people united, can never be defeated.
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More nonsense.
Not just “more nonsense” from this government though Bob (and you’re right to be concerned by what they’re perpetrating).
The point Martyn makes is that these far-right kamikaze policies are downright dangerous, and causing lasting damage.
And he’s spot on.
Gosh, what and in depth and intellectual opinion(sarc)
Jolly John,
This is the Whakamāmā Union in action here. No need to explain yourself quite so much as that.
People who get it.
It’s about as good as it gets from Bob. Three syllables of mindless nonsense.
Isn’t it extraordinary that worker welfare , health, conditions and pay in N.Z. have ended up being dictated to by , not one, but two, 40 year old virgins, Seymour and Van Velden, who have zero life/ real world experience..
If it weren’t for the rich dummies who financed their morally corrupt entry into power they would both be on Seek every day looking for work…
Nobody in their right mind would willingly employ them.
They will find out soon enough by this time next year….bye bye!
Has there ever been a mega strike before or is this the result of a god damn awful government?
Meanwhile Luxon challenges the valuation of a holiday home and has his rates bill reduced by $8100.
Guaranteed to have his house valuation increased when he sells. Life’s so good when you’re wealthy and sorted and you hate anything that represents workers rights.
Spot on point Martyn .
Lets not forget how they are trying to change holiday pay for casual and part time workers.
Meanwhile over at kiwiblog they are fudging the numbers and implying that nurses and teachers are overpaid with some commentators claiming they are paid more than nurses in the UK.
I’ll tell you who is overpaid, the commentators on kiwiblog who spend all bloody day on there!
Thanks for reading kiwiblog so that I don’t have to. They are a scurrilous bunch of big mouths, it’s a painful exercise looking at it. Pays to know what gets them going though.
Eh? I thought they were all retired folk on Kiwiblog?
We need one a month till they get the message .Ans all of the other workers need to get on board and strike for change .This country is going down the drain ASAP .Even farmers are selling the hand that feeds them with sales of parts of Fonterra and the Alliance meat works all while they are getting record prices .What will happen when prices drop or other countries stop buying because prices are too high .I saw a butcher on TV last night quoting $28 per kg for sausages because the price of the beef and cheese are so bloody high .
Its called a market. Its how it works. Suppliers will sell for the highest price they can get – they’re not a charity. Farmers get no subsidies or government support so why should the public get unhappy when they have to pay the market price? Dont like the price of your rib eye? Don’t buy it.
Really. I guess you think the housing market is functioning as well. Taxpayers subsidising rents and all that.
There needs to be a general strike. This strike is a stain on this govt’s reputation but they don’t see that. Striking is a last resort and this lot of bullies are pushing everyone into retaliating, as they will do, I think.
To have been so weak and poor at governing that people like nurses, doctors and teachers strike is telling the whole world that as governments go, they are useless.
Luxon will be laughed out of the next international event he attends because they’ll all know. This is the proof, he’s a failure.
The are striking because this government believes it’s bullying, divisive behavior will be a winning strategy. It’s dictatorship style won’t work in NZ as the general public of N.Z. fight back.
The reasons set out below are why most of the public are supporting this action.
This government and it leader’s response only confirms how remote they are on the serious issues affecting many hard working Kiwi’s. But when you are ” sorted ” you reside in a different country than the one most of us live in and its dire economic conditions.
” One primary school teacher’s thoughts on the mega strike ”
Personally, pay is not at the top of my concerns. We are paid reasonably well for a low-wage economy I suppose. I know many teachers share my views so I’m not quite sure why it has become such a focus (the Government’s spin doctors probably have something to do with that).
People just need to remember that our pay is annualised– so we may have blocks of time away from school (during the children’s holidays) but we also work 60-70 hours a week depending on the time of the year.
What I hope to get out of these negotiations is: to be trusted to decide how to best spend my 10 hours per term CRT (classroom release time) so I can have the most impact on my students’ progress and achievement (currently the government is proposing a very low-trust model and wants to dictate how I use this time); I would also like a Government that acknowledges that, by the time you add up all the 60 hour weeks I do and the 8-10 hour weekends during marking/ report writing times (despite being paid for 40 hour weeks) I do not in fact “get 12 weeks holiday a year”.
That’s a quote from Luxon himself. The man who only sits in Parliament 90 days a year. By his logic (that we are only working while we are physically at work) I wonder what he does with the other 9 months of the year?
I think I know what you mean, battler — the aspect of thinking a lot for others’ benefit. It hurts because Loose Luxon doesn’t, not because you are begrudging.
He should be making Peters resign.
The government is politically motivated in attacking the unions. The Government sets the standards and at present the standards are extremely low. I put that down to extremely low-quality ministers like Simeon Brown and Brooke Van Veldon.
I agree with what you say except about pay equity. This has been a long and yes sometimes a legal fight. Care and support workers got a pay boost thanks to the Kristine Bartlett case in 2017. It opened the door for other pay equity claims including or the wider care and support worker group. It was smashed by Brooke Van Velden without any select committee as you know, Meanwhile, there has been a Peoples Select Committee on Pay Equity which will report soon. Striking is good if you have the power of large collectives like public sector workers do. Care and support workers are employed by private businesses, funded by the govt, hardly ever on collective agreements that go beyond their one worksite if they have one at all. There are other ways of doing political action too.
Gosh real pity about the weather.
I think it’s a very positive step. This government has been addicted to unilateral action. high-handed, ill-conceived and unsuccessful unilateral action ill befitting a modern democracy. Really they should resign, but failing that the public need to put them in their place – the remainder bin at the nearest $2 shop.
David Seymour stating in parliament today that Luxon has worked hard and deserved to have a 10 million dollar home. Tell that to the real hard working people who can barely put food on the table
https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360864456/minister-calls-investigation-after-nelson-hospitals-generators-fail
Just another reason to strike. Massive underfunding by Simeon Brown and this government. Sooner or later something had to give. And where’s Luxon now? Unionized workers putting themselves last, so much for the union politicizing this, another abject failure and excuse by the worst PM in history.