EPMU

Today, he finds us a battling Mum who tells a tale of redundancy woe, factory workers laid off, a futile hunt for a job and now the bleak prospect of maybe having to go to Australia to get work.

After ploughing through paragraphs of this sad tale of an ordinary worker beset by troubles, we hit the last couple of paragraphs.

And lo and behold, the working Mum Simon discovered by diligent research is……a Member of the Labour Party Waitakere Electorate Committee, and a member of the Executive Committee of the EPMU.

She counts herself lucky to have lots of contacts. She is on the Labour Party’s Waitakere electorate committee and is on the national executive of the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union.

Spare me.

Since she is on the national executive of the EPMU perhaps she might like to explain their massive losses over recent years?

Bill is coordinating the campaign well, but is getting testy as key details leak out.

Russel Norman again attacked the government over drilling and mining. Bill from the EPMU is very upset.

Parliament was a lacklustre affair today with Russel Norman focussing on stopping drilling. Bill from the EPMU isn’t happy:

David Shearer made a speech yesterday.

Bill from the EPMU is happy, his first email to the team appears to have been listened to:

Bill still isn’t happy with the performance of their proxy parties in parliament:

Question Time yesterday saw Labour and the Greens focus entirely on Kim Dotcom and a terrorist hacker. So much for their committment to the Jobs Crisis.

Bill at the EPMU isn’t happy.

UPDATE: The EPMU and other assorted union flunkies are concerned that this is a fake, they stupidly think that people might think it is real…it is satire for the terminally stupid…not unlike Txts from New York. OTOH it isn’t unlike another leftist media person who said something was “fake but accurate”.

Chris Trotter is…let’s say disappointed…at the Jobs Crisis Summit:

LAST FRIDAY, Trevor Bolderson, a coal-miner from the West Coast, rose to his feet and asked: “What are you going to do for my little town of Greymouth?” His question was directed at Winston Peters from NZ First, Russel Norman from The Greens and Labour’s finance spokesperson, David Parker. The venue was the “Jobs Crisis Summit” organised by Mr Bolderson’s trade union, the Engineering Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU). Like the German workers of eighty years ago, he too was looking for salvation.

All he got were evasions and promises.

Evasions and Promises…nice.

The assembled politicians would only tell him what he and his workmates already knew. That the lay-offs of Solid Energy’s administrative and mining employees must be understood in the context of the Government’s plans to partially privatise the state-owned energy sector.

No one was willing to give Mr Bolderson an unequivocal commitment to re-opening the Spring Creek Mine. No one spoke of state ownership offering employees and their unions a greater role in managing New Zealand’s energy resources. No one denounced the madness of mothballing a highly productive coal mine and laying-off its highly skilled workers when international demand for its top-grade product is certain to recover as China’s stock-piles dwindle.

Here Trotter is being disingenuous…Spring Creek isn’t highly profitable and never has been.

Trotters solution should scare you all:

If New Zealand’s labour movement is to fare better than its German counterpart of eighty years ago, then not only must it formulate an equally radical plan for “massive state intervention” and democratic restructuring of our economy, but also ensure that Labour, the peoples party, commits itself, body and soul, to making it happen.

From The Herald a photo of the turnout at the Jobs Crisis Summit. There was probably more media there than real participants.

I suppose everyone else was out busy working in their…you know…jobs.

40,000? Is this the real reason for the Job Summit – Observation by the Owl

EPMU and the Greens are holding their “job crisis summit” on Friday. They have invited Labour (belatedly) and NZ First but forgot to invite the Government (why the Owl is unsure but it is sort of celebrating your Grandparents 50^th wedding anniversary and forgetting to invite Granddad).

This is a very naive meeting and shows how out of touch the Greens are with the Business community.

There are thousands of businesses in NZ that have regular Board or Senior Management meetings. Every company and small owner looks at their businesses on a daily basis and if they are concerned they talk to their accountants or lawyers but they do not ring up the Unions for advice.

So while Bill, Rusty, Winney and Dave stand in front of a crowd of possibly 100 well wishers with some graphs, numbers and worried faces, 150,000 working proprietors and 1.3M workers will be doing what they have been doing for the last 100 odd years in NZ – working and keeping the economy going.

1. Does the “Gang of Four” (EPMU, Greens, Labour, and NZ First) really think they are going to arrive at a consensus?
2. Does the “Gang of Four” really think what they come up with business people are going to say “gosh we need to implement this straight away!”
3. Does the “Gang of Four” understand this meeting will be as exciting as the AGM for the local Bridge Club.
4. To create manufacturing jobs you need mining, drilling and raw materials sourced from MOTHER NATURE.
5. Even MSM reporters have said on national radio this meeting will not get much press coverage (ZB Talkback)

Is this real reason for the EMPU call a job crisis summit?

While the NZ economy is experiencing growth, the annual deficit is decreasing, crime is decreasing and we finally won the Rugby World Cup, the EPMU membership and financial situation is in decline.

As the biggest donor to the Labour Party the EPMU needs to have more members so the Labour Party who relies heavily on Union donations can avoid financial hardship leading up to the 2014 elections.

The EPMU are happy at least that the Greens gave them a foot in the door with some economic policy, while Labour struggles and populous NZ First Leader Winston will let them all talk, and then make a statement that supersedes what the group decides.

For the Record

1. EPMU membership is in massive decline yet manufacturing job numbers have remained  static for years,
2. EPMU has eroded millions off their balance sheet,
3. EPMU has reported multi-million dollar losses over the years,

So how can EPMU help?

Well the answer is on their doorstep. The EPMU and the EPMU Education Training Fund.

The Trust was set up for education of members and training grants however all revenues have been soaked up by two staff ($100k each according to their latest financial reports).

It is technically insolvent by $3M and the auditors only allow it to continue to trade because the EPMU have given the Trust assurance it won’t call on the $6M loan.

How about the EPMU and the Trust get wound up and approximately $12M is realized. At a minimum wage of $15.00 the EPMU can subsides 385 people for 12 months to manufacturers.

You know I actually think people in NZ are actually quite happy especially with summer on our doorstep.