The Unions must fight – we need a General Strike, damn the consequences
The sheer scale of political abuse of power this Government have used to crush working women is almost unprecedented in NZ Political History.
To announce and ram a Bill as huge as this through Parliament by misusing urgency is the last straw surely for the Left?
This Government have lied to our faces, deceived us and destroyed the hopes and aspirations of almost half of a million workers…
…all those women received one hell of a Mothers Day present…
…surely now the left must fight back?
Surely?
A: Someone who gets paid less than a man.
Brooke van Velden – Minister for Handmaidens
…it is not enough to merely beg for what this Government have stolen, the Left must fight back!
Right now the Union movement should be employing their lawyers to ascertain exactly how much in penalties will the Union risk if they call for a general strike, because that is what needs to happen now.
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!
As geopolitical tensions point the pretension of free market capitalism, it is the workers who are tasked with getting the job done who are trapped in late stage capitalism on a burning planet!
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.
Sign the petition here:
The Unions must fight – we need a General Strike, damn the consequences!
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Yes it’s a class war and it’s collective action that gets results.
Now you’re talking, instead of wasting time moaning about identity politics.
NZ unions are weak (don’t tell MUNZ, UNITE, Workers First and a few other battlers though!) due to low density since the 1991 union decimating Employment Contracts Act–and–a largely class collaborationist leadership rather than a struggle based class left one since the forming of the NZCTU in 1987. Douglas through to Wagstaff (Helen Kelly excepted) saw a Labour Govt. and partnership and tripartism with the parasite class as the answer.
Direct action is needed now–hound the Natzos whenever they get out in public, and target certain donor employers. It will need to be done imo with a grass roots movement that seeks to unite all who can be united of the oppressed and alienated ranks as well as those employed and the 150,000 women just shat on over Pay Equity. Union lawyers and Secretaries will fill their pants at the prospect of taking on employers and Govt. head on. A mass movement of ordinary NZers with full involvement of union members will get things rolling.
Well said Zelda.
Bob Troll
How do we reconcile – in a democracy – the fact that one half of the population is comfortable and supportive of causing deliberate and avoidable harm to multiple minority groups of fellow citizens? Continuously, repeatedly, even ingenuously in some cases – I do sometimes have to take my hat off to the deviousness and brilliance of the National government and political strategists. They know exactly what they are doing and it is calibrated and surgical.
Voters in many cases will vote for political parties that do not have their long term interests at heart. And they know it and agree with that approach. A sort of anti-woke, hard man, 3ZB type view of the world.
The proud NZ working class – if I can’t provide for myself and my family, we should all starve slowly to death rather than be a burden on anyone else. ‘Solidarity is for poofda’s mate.’
I agree with you but not this bit: “Right now the Union movement should be employing their lawyers to ascertain exactly how much in penalties will the Union risk if they call for a general strike, because that is what needs to happen now”. No. Right now, unions should be holding meetings on jobs, building solid mass support for a general strike from the bottom up. Debating the issue and getting strike resolutions from delegates, union members and the unorganised. Seeking lawyers opinions will only delay and derail action. Most lawyers will tel. them not to take this illegal action.
‘Unions only serve to advance a dangerous, left-wing agenda ‘.
But Zelda – do you Christians not believe in supporting workers?
I mean;
‘ Muzzle not the ox that treadth out the corn.’
‘The labourer is worth of his hire.’
‘Blessed are the poor for they shall know God.’ (Mind you I can see how Chris Luxon is helping with that one – keeping people poor is saving them for heaven.)
Very disappointed in you Zelda.
Sorry Martyn but that’ll be too little, too late. Because what we live in now is tyranny, the only recourse is that specified in the UDHR. Look it up.