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Closing the gap between N.Z. and Oz

by Whaleoil on March 17, 2010

UNIONS will seek a pay rise of $27 a week for the nation’s low-paid workers.

ACTU secretary Jeff Lawrence said the minimum wage claim included a “catch up” component following the pay freeze imposed on 1.4 million low-paid employees last year,

Mr Lawrence said workers had been disproportionately asked to bear the burden of an economic crisis they did not cause,

“The bankers and traders may have got all the media coverage,” he said. “They may have had to wait longer for their bonuses and their holiday houses. But the real sacrifices, as always, were made by everyday people. And in true Australian fashion, it’s time to repay the favour.

“Businesses now owe it to their workers, to ensure they share in the benefit of recovery.”

Speaking at the National Press Club in Canberra, he said the freeze amounted to a pay cut of $10 to $25 a week for low-paid workers by the end of last year.

It sound all fire and brimstone typical from the Unions, but consider this statement and compare with Labour Party and Union claims here.

So just to clarify, Australia missed the global recession, have solid growth outlooks and unemployment falling and the unions are only asking for a 67c increase in the minimum wage

Here, with unemployment growing and negligible growth outlooks, Labour are demanding wanted a $2.50 minimum wage increase over two years.
The catching of Australia might like to trying matching the unions in Australia if we want to catch them. Then again in Australia the the secretary of the ACTU isn’t also the President of Labor.
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  • garry

    Gidday – unions can very fairly claim that they and their constituency arent responsible for the economic crisis. Frankly right wing freemarketeers are (only my opinion) ” if blood be the price of your cursed wealth .. then good god we have bought it dear…” . The douglas/lange (hereinafter known as laurel and hardy – i leave it to you which one is which) linkage sold us all (well some of us) on the freemarket shangrila that would solve all our ills.

    Whats the first thing that monetarists do when the brown stuff hits the fan … they start intervening (shock and horror).

    Then they go back to freemarketeering and somehow convince us all that it is all good for our character .. meantime polis travel expensively – media gurus get paid amounts most of us can only dream of (was Judy Bailey worth $800,000 per annum – mother of the nation my ass … if she was my mother – where was my share…) – actors in two bit hollywood extravaganzas get $4 million per movie … and then they have the cheek to host or hold benefit concerts for the poor and dispossessed … hey guys sign over a percentage of your gross overpayment. Telecom non-performers get paid millions while other Kiwis find it hard to go from payday to payday. Why do you think every bank or financial house in creation is promoting “debt consolidation loans” And frankly you want TROUGHERS – you go looking at their door – they are worse than politicians and have more effect on ordinary people .. i dont see posts about them. ….. jeez you dont have to be bright to figure … people are in the khaki and no one seems to notice. What a crock.

    Politics and parties arent the issue … in my view … the issue is real people are hurting … national arent doing anything and neither are labour because they are all troughing little piggies .. the media dont give a toss – do you think paul henry would give up his fat salary and ability to smile stupidly and carry on like an overweight and uncontrolled juvenile delinquent on OUR TV channel at our cost – and wasting OUR valuable time hanging on his every word – and that goes for Campbell Live as well. Guys there are troughers in Telecom TVNZ every damn Government Department and a few other areas as well – dammit – Don Brash collected some cool money for a report the Government mostly rejected. Who are the troughers .. and we waste time with a guy i dont know who upset some prissy housewife who happened to be married to an all powerful blogger.

    Christ on a candlestick – what in gods name have we come to??

    I have a contact through business – who can prove that average people who are on good incomes are being squeezed and squeezed and squeezed – not just by Helen and her nasty cronies – but by Baloney Key and his cronies as well – these are real people (not the socio economic of offended bloggers perhaps) with kids – who are suffering and cant really see a way forward. The privileged kids who were able to afford a flight with mum and dad on a flight should be grateful. One MP telling them to shut it isnt a big deal for chrissake. What about the people who need help. They are being swamped with immigrant communities, special interest nazis, and any other ‘ism’ you care to mention. If i was a somali refugee i could whistle and hold my hand up and i would have more help than a bull could shit within 5 minutes and to quote the whale “i shit you not”

    How in gods name is any of this blogging bullshit helping. And I AM NOT having a go at bloggers – just trying to provoke dialogue.

    I offer it only as an opinion out of genuine frustration.

    I’ve been an employer – and i’ve seen the negatives of unions in the 70′s etc – but for gods sake – they are but one voice and we ignore it at our peril .. it isnt a socialist voice – its a people voice.

    The Romanovs ignored it at their peril in 1917

    Cheers
    G

  • garry

    And what is the focus of our media so often – our overpriced, overrated excuse for communication and freedom of information … let me quote some examples …

    -Alison Mau likes women
    -Charles Chauvel annoys blogger
    -Paul Henry can say Arse several times in one sentence at a time of day when kids can see and hear it …

    And on the magic roundabout goes …

    And that along with what happened to auntie maudes pet gerbil in exhaustive detail is profiled by our media as serious news.

    Relevance to Unions – relevance is this (in my opinion) – i think its time to stop labelling people and start looking openly at the value or otherwise of what is being said by parties. I see people slavering over what Henry says on Breakfast with his billy bunteresque demeanour making light of often very serious matters – and then i see people denouncing (here and in the mainstream media) statements from others simply because they dont seem to fit the template for right wing / national voting / conservative politics.

    Cheers
    G

    Its enough to make you gag

    G