WorkSafe gutted – are NZ Unions tough enough to beat Brooke van Velden?
I do not believe the NZ Union movement t is ready for this jelly…
WorkSafe changes will deter employees from raising concerns – CTU
The Council of Trade Unions says proposed changes to WorkSafe shifts rights away from workers and to their employers.
The government is shifting WorkSafe’s priorities from enforcement, to giving more advice.
The workplace safety regulator is getting a new letter of expectations, having its finances rearranged, and it’s main purpose re-defined in legislation.
The changes would not come with any new funding.
Council of Trade Unions president Richard Wagstaff told Morning Report the changes will deter employees from raising concerns, out of fear of being blamed.
“What we need is a culture where workers are able to talk about what needs to be done on the job and what needs to be made safe, not one where they can be blamed for [it],” Wagstaff said.
“I think it just reflects a government and a minister who sees everything as needing rebalance and she tends to rebalance things towards employers…”
The existing system needs to be strengthened not weakened, he said.
…you gotta give it Van Velden! Girlfriend just wants it more!
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?
The Unions have no choice but to call a general strike and damn the consequences!
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.
The Unions aren’t negotiating because they haven’t fought for the right to strike and don;t have the muscle to actually push back.
Begging Brooke Van Velden for mercy seems to be a poor strategy.
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After years of getting work place safety in place this silly woman puts up a smoke screen about road cones while stripping work place safety back to 1980 standard .
Change the name of the bill to KILL A WORKER A DAY .
Yep…she’s not the sharpest knife in the draw that’s for sure and her ill conceived ideology is down right dangerous.
Just like the other 40 year old virgin…Seymour… it’s an absolute mystery how they have got to hold so much power with so little experience , so little real critical thinking intellect , so little commonsense and so little moral fibre ….
Well, actually, we all know that big money donors and a corruption of the MMP system got them there…so a lack of, not only morals, but straight out dishonesty, goes a long way to explain it.
As with most of The Right in Parliament…it’s not what you know…but who you know!
Brooke van Velden said in 2023,
“When it came to COVID, we completely blew out what the value of a life was, completely, I’ve never seen such a high value on life.”
So, it would be interesting what she considers a fair value of a life, and whether that value changes depending on what the employee does, what colour their skin is, or what pronoun they ascribe themselves.
Because if we can agree on an equal value for everybody, then how does the government justify the cost of the DPS, while calling road cones a waste of public money.
Sadly unions were slaughtered in the 80s and 90s .Thats why we are a low wage economy lagging behind our best buddy over the ditch .I was living in Brisbane at the time and they were shocked at how kiwi workers were being treated .The AUS government at the time tried to jump on the same band wagon at got evicted from office smartly and Bob and Paul took over and put a stop to it .They even pushed the super saving higher than we are now to 9% from the employer .
NZ is still in the fuck the workers over mentality ,all the while moaning about other countries leaving us behind .Ya get what you vote for people and you have voted for a life time of poverty for your kids and grandkids .Hard working people are paying $600 a week for a house when their pay is $950 before tax .