On Strike

[Waylander]

You got it! It's all a big balancing act. If the university can't pay their staff appropriately, the staff will go elsewhere, quality of teaching drops, students leave, University has no money and so on...

Lower education means idiots get important jobs that control road safty, government finance and others. Then the whole country goes down the shitter. Sorry but you get no support from me.

[Lou Girardin]

Student loans won't accrue interest soon. So they can afford to pay higher fees.
Why doesn't your union raise their claim to 10%?

[Keystone19]

Student loans won't accrue interest soon. So they can afford to pay higher fees.
Why doesn't your union raise their claim to 10%?

I believe the claim is 16% over three years.

To be honest, I think the government needs to review funding of the whole tertiary sector. Raising student fees is the most obvious way to give staff pay rises but it is only one part of it. A proportion of University funding for staff actually comes from research funding not from student fees. It is also performance based. So, the number of publications an academic staff member has, the higher they are rated, therefore the higher the funding to that staff member's department. Less or no publications means no money. It is very interesting!

[Keystone19]

Lower education means idiots get important jobs that control road safty, government finance and others. Then the whole country goes down the shitter.

That's right, unless universtiy staff are paid better then the scenario you outline will definitely occur. Poorly paid staff means poor quality which means more idiots in the positions you talk about.

[Waylander]

That's right, unless universtiy staff are paid better then the scenario you outline will definitely occur. Poorly paid staff means poor quality which means more idiots in the positions you talk about.

Sorry but the way I was brought up, if you want to be paid more you work harder or do a better job of what you do, not threaten your boss into thinking you're more important than you are.

[Ixion]

Bring back Tom Skinner!

Bah, that traitor. Lucky he's dead, or he'd be the first up against the wall come t'revolution. He was one of those who sold out the watersiders in '51. Him and that arse licking rat Patrick Fintan Walsh, may he rot in Hell.

Jock Barnes was the man we need, though he was never a Communist.

[Lou Girardin]

Lower education means idiots get important jobs that control road safty, government finance and others. Then the whole country goes down the shitter. Sorry but you get no support from me.

So that's what's happened!

[Lou Girardin]

Bah, that traitor. Lucky he's dead, or he'd be the first up against the wall come t'revolution. He was one of those who sold out the watersiders in '51. Him and that arse licking rat Patrick Fintan Walsh, may he rot in Hell.

Jock Barnes was the man we need, though he was never a Communist.

I knew that, eventually, someone would say this.
Excellent, Ixion.

[Lou Girardin]

Sorry but the way I was brought up, if you want to be paid more you work harder or do a better job of what you do, not threaten your boss into thinking you're more important than you are.

So productivity in NZ has increased in the last 10 years, corporate profits like wise, but average wages haven't kept up.
Any other ideas?

[Waylander]

So productivity in NZ has increased in the last 10 years, corporate profits like wise, but average wages haven't kept up.
Any other ideas?

Sure, replace the government with one that will stop hiding tax money and might actually do something that is good for the country instead of lineing thier own pockets. In a bitter mood today, might go for a ride see if that helps.

[Ixion]

So productivity in NZ has increased in the last 10 years, corporate profits like wise, but average wages haven't kept up.
Any other ideas?

Nationalise them. Return the profits of production to the workers who create the profits. Replace the government first of course.

[oldrider]

Everyone wants something for free. Anything for free just means someone else is paying for it. As a taxpayer Im already paying for too many things that I don't want and never will want. Taxation is just standover extortion made legal by thieving political criminals. The roads have got legal highwaymen hiding around almost every corner. Think about it just think!!! Cheers John.

[Keystone19]

Sorry but the way I was brought up, if you want to be paid more you work harder or do a better job of what you do, not threaten your boss into thinking you're more important than you are.

That may well work in the private sector and I'm all for working harder to get more money. In the public sector, it doesn't make a whole lot of difference how hard I work, I still get paid the same. Sure, I can go up a few steps on the salary scale if I work really hard (read 80+ hours per week for a few hundred bucks extra per year), but sooner or later I'll reach the top and that's it. This type of system does not reward hard workers very effectively.

If workers who are in the public or private sector on collective employment agreements don't have the freedom to strike for better conditions then what kind of a democracy are we?

[MikeL]

Taxation is just standover extortion made legal by thieving political criminals.

Of course. Taxation is theft. There's no such thing as "public" expenditure. It all comes out of private pockets. Yours and mine. Money that we earned, every cent of it. Money that is rightfully ours to keep or spend as we see fit.
Why should I have to pay for services I don't use?

I've just had a brilliant thought: why not abolish all taxes? Privatise everything. User pays. Every school a private school. Every hospital a private hospital. Every road a toll road. Coin-in-the-slot street lighting. Invoices from the police if they manage to solve the burglary that you reported.

Why hasn't anybody thought of this before?

[Keystone19]

Of course. Taxation is theft. There's no such thing as "public" expenditure. It all comes out of private pockets. Yours and mine. Money that we earned, every cent of it. Money that is rightfully ours to keep or spend as we see fit.
Why should I have to pay for services I don't use?

I've just had a brilliant thought: why not abolish all taxes? Privatise everything. User pays. Every school a private school. Every hospital a private hospital. Every road a toll road. Coin-in-the-slot street lighting. Invoices from the police if they manage to solve the burglary that you reported.

Why hasn't anybody thought of this before?

Why don't we all just move to the good ol' US of A...