Who will weep for a self serving public service and are the Unions doing enough?

ByMartyn Bradbury

Poll: Slim majority agree with public sector job cuts

The latest 1News Verian poll has revealed a slim majority of people agree with the Government’s public service job cuts.

Who will weep for a self serving public service?

Against the Current asks if the Unions are doing enough…

Are trade union officials really standing up for the rights of workers? 

…while Daniel McLauchlan’s latest crusade on attacking the Wellington Professional Managerial Class raises important questions on how the State should regulate itself during Late Stage Capitalism that the Political Left need to look at…

Unjarndycing the State

The dogmatic political left invests its faith in the bureaucratic state; the dogmatic right trusts oligopolistic free markets – leaving New Zealand with crumbling infrastructure and corruption

…the Political Left have allowed the self-interested Public Service and the Professional Managerial Class to push self interested virtue signals rather than structural change and increased capacity of the State!

David Seymour says the Public Service is Left wing, bullshit!

If only this was true!

The Wellington Bureaucracy isn’t left wing! It’s a self interested Professional Managerial Class who use identity politics to mask their neoliberal hands-off-do-nothing-but-build-glass-palaces fiefdoms.

Oh they do the reo, and expose their pronouns and militantly ride bikes, they are effortless in their use of inclusion as a means to dominate and control the narrative, but they are a middle class clique, not left wing egalitarianism.

The Wellington Bureaucracy is a culture war of woke middle class Identity Politics aspirations backed with State funding, they may aesthetically be Left but they sure as fuck aren’t economically Left.

To brand the Public Service as ‘Left’ misdiagnoses the disease, symptom and patient!

The real power struggle in NZ isn’t Left vs Right, it’s between the Professional Managerial Class Corporate Consultants who influence policy to maintain their dominance and profit margins vs the self serving Public Service wanting to spend taxpayer money on their latest architectural gesture.

The Politicians are merely a masquerade of democracy to ensure participation that generates legitimacy, but the real power is between the Corporate Consultants who influence all policy to keep NZ deregulated and the self serving Public Service who are in it for their own fiefdoms.

Daniel talks about the lack of actual competition to the self-serving Public Service and to that effect Māori Social Service Providers could easily become the competition the self serving Public Service needs while building State capacity with a Ministry of Green Works.

The lack of results from a self serving Public Service riddled with Corporate Consultants could finally be challenged by Māori Social Service Providers that treat everyone who comes, but in a Māori cultural setting.

That development can drive the self serving Public Service to be far more responsive and force actual results out of them.

It’s allowing regulated capitalism to inject the dynamic of competition while building State capacity.

Imagine a scenario where Iwi joined forces with the State to create a 3rd Supermarket Operator with a focus on lower costs to customers, better work conditions for workers and better prices for suppliers.

Or expanding existing community health groups that are open to the entire community but run within Kaupapa Māori.

Same with Māori schools.

You can generate the competitive friction Capitalism requires while building up the State, not denigrating it.

A new relationship with the self-serving public service is required, you can’t build more capacity into the state if the self serving Public Service only care about building glass palaces.

You can’t pour billions into public services and get no better service!

The self serving Public Service are gatekeepers and to force real change requires a Left wing that already has the policy ready to push through in the first 100 days.

Labour when last in power spent too much time simply rearranging the bureaucratic   structures rather than actual capacity, that led to nothing.

Back to the question that Against the Current asked…

Are trade union officials really standing up for the rights of workers? 

…look at the reaction to the decision by the Government to dump the Pay Parity detente…

PM must commit to pay equity settlement for care and support workers

The unions representing care and support workers are calling on Prime Minister Christopher Luxon to pledge his commitment to deliver pay equity for the lowest paid workers on the frontline of healthcare in aged care, home support, disability support, mental health support. The call comes after today’s announcement of a proposal to disestablish the Pay Equity Taskforce within Te Kawa Mataaho, Public Service Commission.

The three unions – PSA, E tū and NZNO – say while Aotearoa has persistent gender pay gaps, where women are paid less than they’re worth, it is unthinkable to disband the expert group of people tasked with supporting pay equity.

The pay equity claim for care and support workers is well underway. Their claim simply aims to update the landmark settlement delivered by the National Party in 2017. Thousands of families have waited for almost two years for a desperately needed, and deeply deserved, pay increase.

Tossing out frameworks that guide how we address pay inequity leaves a massive gap in mechanisms for solving this problem. This change will particularly affect community and iwi-based organisations.

We are seriously concerned about a change in funding direction for pay equity claims in funded services.

…because our Unions are not actual mass movements and refuse to use militant tactics and strategies to force the hand of the Government, they have become reliant on legal rulings on equal pay to do all the heavy lifting for them.

There are a couple of landmark employment rulings on equal pay that the Unions have used to demand a detente with the Government to negotiate better pay scales but this new Hard-Right, Racist, Climate-Denying, Beneficiary-Bashing Government is here to smash the fucking unions and they sure as fuck have zero interest in allowing State funded internal structures pressing for more upward wage pressures.

The reliance of the Unions on using legal cases to push their agenda rather than get their hands dirty using street tactics means the things gained are easy to lose.

Look at the Fair Pay Agreements.

The Union movement seem to be under some terrible misconceptions they don’t have to fight this new Hard-Right, Racist, Climate-Denying, Beneficiary-Bashing Government which is a woeful reading of the battlefield.

For for the love of Christ, the Government intend to stop automatic payments to Unions for their membership fees! They are coming after your direct means of funding, they intend to slit your throat and drain you dry.

Killing off the Unions is a trophy they intend to hand their donors.

The Unions are going to have to fight. Can they remember how to do that?

 

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14 Comments

  1. I find the idea of the government and iwi partnering to run a supermarket chain laughable. Neither of them know the first thing about running a highly complex business. They would need to have an experienced operator come into the mix to set up all of the systems and processes required. The government would then be subsidising one commercial operator over another. Additionall if the aim is to ultimately reduce consumer prices the only real way to do this is by improving the efficiency of the supply chain. This can only be feasibly done by leveraging economies of scale tapping into international markets. A new relatively small NZ based outfit won’t be able to do this. The best we can do is make it as easy as possible for someone like Aldi to come here. We should also agressivley clam down on anti competitive land covernants etc. I would also require the supermarkets to transparently publish all of their prices online for each store in a manner that can be easily compared across companies, sites etc

  2. The majority of people employed in Wellington are involved in Government.
    The majority of people employed in Auckland are not involved in Government

    Wellington votes green / Labour
    Auckland votes National / Act

    Public sector at the very least leans very heavily left

  3. “The Wellington Bureaucracy isn’t left wing! It’s a self interested Professional Managerial Class who use identity politics to mask their neoliberal hands-off-do-nothing-but-build-glass-palaces fiefdoms.”

    Depends on how you define the Wellington bureaucracy. Certainly those at the top tend to be about as right wing as you can get, given that they are treated and behave like private company CEOs. But most public servants I’ve dealt with, including people from internal revenue have been extremely helpful and punctilious. I never enquired about their politics, it wasn’t necessary. They are on the whole there to do a job, and often their job involves protecting us – from invasive species, from food adulteration, and a host of other things that might harm us. This is what most of the nongs who are howling for job cuts fail to understand. Fuck ’em.

    1. PLus one to that “This is what most of the nongs who are howling for job cuts fail to understand. Fuck ’em”.

      All those screaming for job cuts will be the first to moan they cant get something done the public service does in the backroom.

  4. I have posted on PSA social media with my views and did not get one reply. They whinge but do not seem to propose to do anything apart from special pleading. They need to drop the bogus political neutrality stance and take strategic direct action.

    Industrial action does not have to be an all out strike–though that is what they really need to do!–but could say include WINZ/MSD members approving all job seeker benefits and informing of ALL entitlements, ACC staff doing similar, Statistics Dept. turning off the info flow, MSD staff interrupting pensions–that would get a few going!

    This is a union busting CoC Govt. and it is about time for the NZCTU to start calling regional delegates and members meetings across the country–including involvement of non members, families and community to get support for a fightback. Low union density relates back to the Natzos 1991 Employment Contracts Act and Ken Douglas class collaborationist sell out regarding direct action–in 2024 that needs to be put behind us and a new class left militancy started.

  5. Clear out the dead wood and cut the pay of those remaining, they work for the state so they do it out of loyalty to the country and people, not to enrich themselves. Make it a rule that you have to be a NZ citizen for 20 years before being able to work in public service, and give Maori more access to public sector employment.

  7. Pretty garbage headline from tv1, 52 percent agree 35 % dont and the rest dont give a fuck.
    Should have ‘slim’ in the headline at all.

  8. I recall Danilo Dolci organising a work strike for the regularly unemployed wanting jobs. It was called a ‘reverse strike’ where people acted positively against a negative environment.

    Our James McNeish visited and wrote about it in his book about Danilo Dolci Fire Under the Ashes available in NZ:
    https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=30381270629&searchurl=kn%3DFire%2Bunder%2Bthe%2BAshes%2BJames%2BMcNeish%26sortby%3D2&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-title3

    About the ‘strike’ and its aftermath:
    Wikipedia
    https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Danilo_Dolci
    Dolci in a hunger strike for eight days (October … This earned him his first notoriety in 1956, when he gathered some 150 unemployed men to mend a …
    ****************************************
    This should be read by all puzzled about where we are now in NZ/AO. Dolci was middle class and applied his mind to the lower class and poverty and intransigent authorities with guides to the future that showed a golden dot where there were ‘piles of money available for taking; but no space for concern for fellow people, mercy and generosity of spirit.
    https://www.scielo.br/j/estpsi/a/vLnyDc5dTNp8TpLLwWH3BBD/?format=pdf&lang=en

    Danilo Dolci’s Sicily
    Catholic Worker Movement
    https://catholicworker.org › 859-html
    The beginning of Dolci’s fame came when he was arrested for what he termed a “reverse strike.” He found unemployment in Trappeto, and men wanting to work,…
    ***********************
    Danilo Dolci leads fast and reverse strike for employment, 1956
    Global Nonviolent Action Database
    https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu › content › danilo-dol…
    Dolci and his followers planned to fast for a day in preparation for a “reverse strike” where a number of unemployed men would work on road construction …
    *************************
    Danilo Dolci: A Nonviolent Reformer in Sicily
    Jstor
    https://www.jstor.org › stable
    by JA AMATO · 1978 · Cited by 4 — ” In 1955, Dolci effected this reverse strike by leading a group of unemployed workers to. 220. Page 7. Danilo Dolci : A ……
    ******************************
    Danilo Dolci: Non-Violence in Italy
    Commentary Magazine
    https://www.commentary.org › articles › kathleen-nott
    Groups then took turns in repairing a road which had been cut by a stream. Thus not only the fact of unemployment was advertised, but also the still totally …
    *********************************
    Danilo Dolci | CivilResistance.info
    civilresistance.info
    https://civilresistance.info › author
    Dolci’s account of the ‘reverse strike’ by unemployed agricultural workers which he led in Partinico to repair a disused road, and his subsequent trial in 1956.
    *******************************************
    the relevance of Danilo Dolci for the Cultural Psychology of …
    SciELO
    https://www.scielo.br › estpsi PDF
    by L TATEO · 2022 — reverse-strike: he gathered a number of unemployed volunteers to repair a main road of access to the village that was completely
    ********************************************
    Note: Danilo saw that lack of water for the poor during their dry season was a means of keeping them poor and in subjection so he advocated for a dam to hold water from the wet season for the dry so the people didn’t have to buy water which was owned by the local powerful people. He went on a hunger strike to make the point. The national Italian government decided for it and it was tendered out to you-know-who and slowly started.
    I think Dolci died before the finish and it then stopped.

    Question in European Parliament 2015 on ‘The Unfinished Blufi Dam’
    https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/E-8-2015-001743_EN.html

    About the innovative Sicilian Blufi project dam:
    https://www.pabloarboleda.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Arboleda-P.-2022.-The-Dam-of-the-Damned_with-P.-Jankiewicz.pdf

    Feb 2024 https://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Oranges_wither_cows_go_hungry_in_drought-hit_Sicily_999.html

    http://www.planum.net/movies-archive-13-unfinished-italy 2012?

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