the progressive workers' strike

[Ixion]

Legal twaddle maybe, but a Union picket line is a very different beast to a protest. Incidentally, it's not a strike either, it's a lockout.

[The Pastor]

Ffs Tell Those Union Suckers To Get Back To Work.

I Started Out On My $7.30 And I Didn't Complain. If They Want More Money Get A Nother Job No One Is Forcing You To Work There.

[Hitcher]

It's not a strike either, it's a lockout.

1951 all over again! Either way, it's not working...

[Finn]

1951 all over again! Either way, it's not working...

Yeah, I'm out of Cornflakes!

[Ixion]

1951 all over again! Either way, it's not working...

No. Along long long way still from 1951. No-one who remembers those days would make such a comparison.

[Hitcher]

No. Along long long way still from 1951. No-one who remembers those days would make such a comparison.

I was referencing the terms "lock-out" and "strike", most famously juxtaposed depending on what side one may have been on in relation to the 1951 strike. You can still pick people's backgrounds today, depending on how they describe this event. I agree, today's standoff is flaccidly flatulent by comparison.

[Paul in NZ]

I think we need to be a little careful here....

Unions got a very bad reputation when they became all powerful but funnily enough in that time, the 'average' Kiwi enjoyed a very good standard of living and many of us look back on it as a kind of Golden Age...

The break up of the unions and the great changes that occured were very advantageous to many people. If you were smart and could look after yourself, you did very well and yet there were many people who did not do so good. Look at (for instance) a telecom Linesman in the early 70's and the same guys now??

Anyway - Lets not dis unions. The union I was invovled with did a hell of a lot of good and looked after you when times were not so good. We negotiated continued employment (lower rates of pay) for members that had suffered breakdowns etc just to keep them earning a living wage while they recovered and made sure they were looked after. Our employer also did their bit in this regard.

My grandfather was a secretary of the Tramways Union during the depression and unions were the only protection many ordinary folk had and yes, it came down to pick axe handles and late night negotiating at times.

Unionism is a right. Workers have got the right to freely associate and organisethemselves into organised labour. You may not agree with their aims BUT it is essential these rights are protected - it might be you that needs it one day!

[Ixion]

,,.

The break up of the unions and the great changes that occured were very advantageous to many people. If you were smart and could look after yourself, you did very well and yet there were many people who did not do so good. ,,

Unions were not (and are not) based on the premise of getting the best deal for those who are smart and able to look after themselves (I am writing for the general audience here, I realise that you know that , Paul).

They are premised on getting the best and fairest deal for those NOT well able to guard their own interests. And the premise that the smart and clever are willing to accept a deal that is personally less advantageous to themselves , in the interests of a decent deal for the less able.

And, as you say, none of us know when circumstances may perhaps transform us into one of the "less able". Karma's a bitch at times.

The old State industries (Railways, PTO etc) did an enormous amount of unrecognised social good in keeping people in the mainstream of society who today are thrown on the scrap heap. (And incidentally, making it much harder for the shirkers, since there could be no excuse at all for not having a job).

No human being there was ever treated as a disposable commodity.

Only now is the realisation of the true cost of a "market economy" starting to be appreciated . And , along with that realisation, a dawning awareness of just how much society as a whole is subsiding the Corporations and the exploiters.

[Scouse]

Yeah, I'm out of Cornflakes!

Mate we have got some Cornflakes for you

[WINJA]

Unions Are Great , Our Union Called Us To Strike Many Years Ago , Our Union Guy Had His Finger On The Pulse And Saw The Righting On The Wall The Boss Was Being All Pally And Shit Saying You Dont Need A Union And You Dont Need A Redundancy Agreement , Well We Just Had 5 Guys Laid Off And We Went On Stirke And We Got A Redundancy Agreement Then About 4 Weeks Later I Was One Of 7 To Be Made Redundant , I Am Forever Gratefull To The Union For That Redundancy Payout, Just Goes To Prove My Boss Then Like Most Bosses Of Big Companys Are Liars And Bullshiters The Cunt Woulda Sent Me On My Way Without A Penny

[scumdog]

And d'y' still wonder why I oppose arming the police with Tasers ? Any cops want to still maintain the fiction that Tasers will only be to protect them from "vicious criminals" ?

But the policehave always been the willing tools of the capitalists, nothing has changed since Massey's Cossacks.

THIS cop will maintain the 'fiction'!!

Don't hit me with your picket sign and I won't shoot you with my Tazer, fair 'nough??.

[scumdog]

I started my first part time job at Woolies when I was 15, on $2.98 per hour. (Probably minimum wage)

Within 6 months and a lot of hours worked I was able to afford my first motorbike. Then I discovered alcohol and girls and didn't manage to save any money again for many years.

Softcock!
It was 54 cents an hour with the South Otago Catchment Board in 1969, - and I was taxed on the too!!!!

[Warren]

*cough* When I left foodstuffs earlier this year the starting wage was $10.40 per hour ($12 for those with a few years experience), so the progressive wage would be similar espacially that they are both covered by the same union (NDU).

[Lou Girardin]

I love the comments from people who've known nothing but 'New Right' ideaology in their working careers. They know nothing of the working conditions people enjoyed 30 or 40 years ago.
Overtime at time and a half or double time, tool allowances, meal allowances. Living wages, you could raise a family, own a home etc on one wage.
All this was removed and we were sold down the river by a Labour Govt (actually ACT in drag).
Granted, there were problems back then. But, as Aust has done, they could have been fixed without wholesale destruction of a way of life.
And the benficiaries of these changes?
Your Fayes, Richwhites, Gibbs and Kerrs and the other leaches typified by the Busines Roundtable.

[Lias]

Overtime at time and a half or double time, tool allowances, meal allowances.

These things DO exist, albeit rarely.

I've worked for companies in the last 5 years that provided time and a half, meal allowances, and if not tool allowances brought me gear for my job and let me keep it.