the progressive workers' strike

[Skyryder]

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.

Good one lou. All this bullshit about Labour freeing up the market .......yea right..........freeing up the market for the freebooters.

As you say there was a time when one wage could cope sufficeintly well. Not today. Labour fucked up big time with Rodgernomics..................but it was Muldoon who portrayed the unions as bogymen that eventually led to Labours market forces ideology.

Skyryder

[Colapop]

Go back to work ya lazy bastards!! I can't get what I want at the supermarket....


What??? F*ck no, I'm not going to read 9 pages of thread...

[Brian d marge]

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.

I left NZ for the first time, just before that happened , when I came back some 12 years later ,,it was WTF has happened here. So I did a bit of digging , and stumbled upon a lovely little film , name escapes me for now , But ,,, long and short m the monetary climate was changing , due to the introduction of a new way af trading stocks ( I still dont understand it ) ..and governments had to attract investment into the country , as now the money could easily be moved ,
Andy kriegler , bought NZ money then dumped it for a profit, causing a devaluation...

Now heres where I part company with the thinking, NZ did the right thing BUT it did it TOO quickly, ( unlike Aussie who implimented a strategy ..or somesort of long term arrangement) NZ way left a large underclass , from which our present hoodies stem from ....
It wasnt Labour , national or ho chee min it was alan gibbs ( lower case as aI have now respect for what they did) and all the other lou mentioned ...THEY are the ones dictating the country, ( anyone remember the think tank proposal document ...it was a ;oad of self interested rubbish)

What I want to see is deliberate step taken to say we stuffed up , other countrys didi it better we will do what they do

AND ..a program put in placeto show/help parents raise children ..as in your child gets /shows tendencys to get into trouble ...YOU AND your kids have to be chaparoned through life , by a ma from the ministery...( None of this faith based rubbish ..not because I dont approve, its just that I fell its to open for abuse ....)


Otherwise, we will havve hoodies breeding with hoodies ...and before you know it

Stephen

ps this is a short history .... http://www.asahi.com/english/asianet...ng_011221.html

[cowboyz]

DO YOU REALLY THINK YOUR GROCERY BILLS WILL GO UP ANYMORE THEY WONT BECAUSE PROGRESIVE HAVE TO PRICE ACCORDING TO FOODSTUFFS PRICE IT JUST MEANS PROGREIVES ALREADY HUGE PROFIT IS JUST A BIT SMALLER ,

It shouldn't be forgotten that Foodstuffs are actually really shocking. Much worse than woolworths. Foodstuffs starting rate is $11.50 while WW is $15.70 in the distribution centres in Palmerston North. The guys are PN WW are actually quite well treated. They are striking for their comrades in other parts of the county. The NDU has 95% support in WW but about 10% support in foodstuffs. While I was working at foodstuffs I witnessed serveral times a day the pressure management put on the floor staff threatening them with all sorts of things like no overtime and more pressure on making standards if they joined the union. I was quickly made the union delegate for the time I was there but it is a uphill battle. When people are living week to week and they need their next paycheck then they can't see the wood for the trees - and often not because they don't want to - it is because they cant afford to.

[terbang]

Lets not lose sight of what is happening here. It is now a Lockout rather than a Strike. A lockout is a seige put upon workers by an emplyer to force them to agree to something that is in dispute. Having being locked out myself (ex Ansett NZ) I can vouch for its destructive nature. I, funnily enough, am still locked out by Ansett as I didn't agree to what they were trying to ram down my throat, caught a plane and took a job in Europe. Came home after a 5 year adventure to find a different industrial climate in NZ. I still have the lockout notice and it is a draconian document by any measure. The Ansett NZ debarcle was nothing more than a bunch of Aussie businessmen (murdoch of newscorp) thumping some Kiwi workers, with absolutely no real intention to negotiate, in an attempt to make an airline attractive for sale. They eventually flogged the mortally wounded company off to some local Kiwi suckers who subsequently went down the gurgler. Everyone lost..
I'll be buying my groceries elswhere..

[Finn]

I left NZ for the first time, just before that happened , when I came back some 12 years later ,,it was WTF has happened here. So I did a bit of digging , and stumbled upon a lovely little film , name escapes me for now...

Once We're Warriors. That's what's happended to NZ.

[WINJA]

I'll be buying my groceries elswhere..

THATS RIGHT YOU CAN BUY YOUR GROCERIES ELSEWHERE IT DOESNT HAVE TO BE FOODSTUFFS OR PROGRESIVE STORES , THERE WERE SOME NICE LITTLE PLACES TO SHOP IN AUCKS WITH SIMILAR PRICES TO THE BIG 2 AND I LIKED PUTTING MY MONEY THERE

[The Pastor]

Sif I'll buy my goceries where I like. And that will be were ever is cheapest. I dont care how much the staff get payed or how much pollution the company puts out.

[Scouse]

Sif I'll buy my goceries where I like. And that will be were ever is cheapest. I dont care how much the staff get payed or how much pollution the company puts out.

what are you taking about you dont buy groceries your mum still buys them for you

[The Pastor]

It shouldn't be forgotten that Foodstuffs are actually really shocking. Much worse than woolworths. Foodstuffs starting rate is $11.50 while WW is $15.70 in the distribution centres in Palmerston North. The guys are PN WW are actually quite well treated. They are striking for their comrades in other parts of the county. The NDU has 95% support in WW but about 10% support in foodstuffs. While I was working at foodstuffs I witnessed serveral times a day the pressure management put on the floor staff threatening them with all sorts of things like no overtime and more pressure on making standards if they joined the union. I was quickly made the union delegate for the time I was there but it is a uphill battle. When people are living week to week and they need their next paycheck then they can't see the wood for the trees - and often not because they don't want to - it is because they cant afford to.

Shit me. I stated on $8 bucks. After 3 raises im on 11.50-12 somthing wtf are you all complaining about? Starting rate 11.50? Damn man thats more than what ive been earning for the last 3 months. You dont hear me complaing (of my job often you will hear me say cant do that for I have no money but thats differnt) If I wanted more money I'd get another job. There are PLEANTY of people who would love 11.50 an hour. Move to otago and get over it.

[Beemer]

blah blah blah... Your Fayes, Richwhites, Gibbs and Kerrs and the other leaches typified by the Busines Roundtable.

Excuse ME Lou, but don't lump all us Fayes in with the likes of (I assume this is who you meant) Fay Richwhite and the like!

And while I may be self-employed, it's just a fancy way of saying "doesn't get much money some months"!

[cowboyz]

renegade... I bet it is not difficult to live on $8/hour when you have you, yourself and fuckall to support. Go knock up a chick and then start working out how you are going to start supporting a family on ~$260 per week. These companies thrive on the lower class and they have a social responibility not to screw them into the dirt at every oppourtunity. ALOT of people working on the floor at the distribution centres are honest hard working people who show up for work week in week out and don't know any better. They honestly believe that if they cause any trouble then they will get fired and there is nothing else out there. Now I am not saying that everyone who works as a labourer is a dumbarse - not by far. The more abitious venture on to other careers or get promoted up the chain very quickly. The ones that are left are left with the dreggs... then go home to find they are struggling to pay the rent and have to work more hours just to make ends meet and then the cycle goes round and round. It is alot more complicated that trying to figure out if you are going to put $10 gas in your bike or go for a soda with your mates.

[Lou Girardin]

Once We're Warriors. That's what's happended to NZ.

Yeah, that's it. Put people put off work in the name of 'efficiency', in reality meaning more profits for the few. Then let the poor mug taxpayer pick up the bill for the social chaos that ensues.

[Lou Girardin]

Excuse ME Lou, but don't lump all us Fayes in with the likes of (I assume this is who you meant) Fay Richwhite and the like!

And while I may be self-employed, it's just a fancy way of saying "doesn't get much money some months"!

Sorry Faye. Unless you're a rapacious fatcat too.

[The Pastor]

renegade... I bet it is not difficult to live on $8/hour when you have you, yourself and fuckall to support. Go knock up a chick and then start working out how you are going to start supporting a family on ~$260 per week. These companies thrive on the lower class and they have a social responibility not to screw them into the dirt at every oppourtunity. ALOT of people working on the floor at the distribution centres are honest hard working people who show up for work week in week out and don't know any better. They honestly believe that if they cause any trouble then they will get fired and there is nothing else out there. Now I am not saying that everyone who works as a labourer is a dumbarse - not by far. The more abitious venture on to other careers or get promoted up the chain very quickly. The ones that are left are left with the dreggs... then go home to find they are struggling to pay the rent and have to work more hours just to make ends meet and then the cycle goes round and round. It is alot more complicated that trying to figure out if you are going to put $10 gas in your bike or go for a soda with your mates.

It was their choice to start a family on a low wage.