Are Union Bosses really going to war for 100k gold plated Wellington bureaucrats? Really?
How do you announce universal unionism via the Fair Pay Agreement system and avoid the Right terrifying Kiwis into believing Labour are bringing in striking communism?
1 – Quietly tell the PSA no pay rises for 3 years.
2 – Greens and PSA go into meltdown screaming for gold plated $100k public service jobs
3 – Announce Universal Union Membership WHILE giving the CTU $250k to help implement it.
4 – Critics shut the fuck up because Labour have just pulled out the greatest workers rights upgrade since the 1908 blackball miners strike and the public won’t tolerate strikes from public servants being paid $100 000.
The only commentator outside TDB who gets the play is Bryce Edwards…
The timing of the two announcements this week was obviously no coincidence. In retrospect, it seems likely the Government ensured this relatively pro-worker announcement was preceded by a balancing anti-worker announcement, so Labour couldn’t be accused of being too leftwing or in the pocket of the unions and can keep Labour’s new-found and former National voters onside. Basically, the announcement was a way to “blue wash” the Government, selling it to conservative supporters, especially to inoculate Labour from business criticisms over the new fair pay agreement framework.
…it’s almost as if Labour strategists looked deep into the soul of their likely critics, put together a strategy that elicited the exact response you could predict from those critics, and implemented it ruthlessly.
The Bosses are furious…
With Fair Pay Agreements (FPAs) coming into force in 2022, Labour has been accused by National of being “stuck in the 1970s”, when a similar system was in place.
FPAs are a set of terms and conditions – including wages and working hours – which employers in a particular sector will be forced to abide by, with the overall aim of raising workplace standards.
…and hilariously, the CTU of course are huffing and puffing…
Union bosses to Government: We won’t take public pay freeze ‘lying down’
The Government is facing an enormous amount of backlash over its decision to freeze public sector wages and unions are demanding ministers come to the negotiation table and act in “good faith”.
Union leaders are gearing up to meet key ministers, including Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, to attempt to reverse the changes.
“Don’t expect us to take this lying down,” CTU President Richard Wagstaff told the Herald.
…really Richard?
Barely 10% of the NZ workforce are in a union and most of those are dominated by the Public Service.
Richard is going to walk away from the greatest recruitment opportunity in 35 years to reverse that appalling trend is is he?
The Government have just given the CTU the greatest roll back of neoliberalism in 35 fucking years with universal unionism via the Fair Pay Agreement system and Richard is going to die in a ditch for 100k gold plated Wellington bureaucrats?
Really?
The average wage in NZ is $53 000 – only the most delusional echo chamber free-the-nipple-militant-cyclist-vegan would think the public will come out in support of 100k gold plated Wellington bureaucrats.
The Government just handed over $250 000 to the CTU to help organise the new unions and you are going to reject that are you?
We both know you are going to take that $250k.
MPs are sacrificing their for 3 years with a Pay freeze, but your twitter mates in Welly don’t have to hu?
Helen Kelly would not have defended 100K pay packets for Wellington bureaucrats.
Luckily for Labour the screams from the Greens, CTU and PSA will cancel out the screams from the Business community and the middle electorate will act like Pavlov’s dog ensuring Labour hold their new National voters while implementing the most radical overhaul of worker rights in 30 years.
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Talking about fair pay agreements – how about we restore the pay parity teachers at the top of the basic scale once had with a back bench MP?
Or vice versa – drop said back benchers back now.
Can’t do that. Teachers are public employees, so pay freeze is for them too.
Ever since the 80’s we have been engaged in a race to the bottom in many sectors.
I worked for Air NZ and saw the ‘restructuring’ destroy company jobs as many services were contracted out. The company cleaners were replaced with contractors – arriving at work at 6:30am we would find 2 lady cleaners already toiling away cleaning the office. These women were mothers with young children. Each few years the cleaning contract was put out to tender and the lowest bid accepted. These women would have to re-apply for their jobs with reduced pay and conditions. They worked 3 jobs, after they finished our offices they would go clean at the Terminal Building and then to Middlemore Hospital. All the while the airline was making record profits and the CEO’s got huge salaries and bonuses for cutting costs.
The need for worker protection and representation has never been greater.
An excellent comment. In my view Rogernoms have also found a way to be more efficient than slavery, aka get workers to pay for these jobs. NZ’s gullibility and stupidity (or maybe neoliberal cleverness) is to then get the state to increasingly subsidise these workers paying for their jobs for the rest of their lives, and their families etc, so the lower than slavery condition is worth it.
Why work when you can just buy a house on interest only and use massive new tax free Jacinda capital gain in your existing house as a deposit then get some mug to pay you massive rents. You literally do nothing and pay nothing. Working is for mugs. Jacinda has us parasites backs. Like she said “kiwis expect it”.
You wouldn’t last 1 year in any other system. You run straight back home everytime it got a little hard.
Nurses doctors teachers police are all going to hurt from this stupid freeze .If all or any of these go on strike people will see how unfair this freeze is .
If unions get up a head of steam and wages in the private sector jump causing the inevitable price increase the public servants will have more reason to feel let down.
Another cost that will climb are rents due to property owners putting up rents to make up for the amount they lose on tax reform.
It is going to be an interesting time ahead and unfortunately those at the bottom will suffer as the government fight for survival
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/125064954/why-jacinda-ardern-needs-to-make-a-john-keystyle-uturn-on-pay-sector-freeze
“Critics shut the fuck up because Labour have just pulled out the greatest workers rights upgrade since the 1908 blackball miners strike”..if its such a gamechanger for workers then why aren’t the business–round table types going into complete and total meltdown like they do at the smallest provocation?