Unions

The Maritime Union caused one of the longest industrial disputes in the last decade striking against the Ports of Auckland when the Ports wanted to make their port more efficient.

MUNZ held the port to ransom, trying to protect $92,000 a year plus jobs for working 27 hours a week at an unproductive port that was not producing adequate returns to their owner, the ratepayers of Auckland. Section 97 meant that the Ports of Auckland were unable to replace striking or locked out workers with temporary workers while they continued the negotiations, causing disproportionate financial costs to the Port.

The law is so ludicrous that during the industrial dispute when crucial equipment broke down the Port bought in temporary labour and were fined $40,000 for employing contractors to keep the port running.  Read more »

Via the tip-line

I’m no fan of the union-like cartel that comes in the form of the Building & Services Contractors. I’ve posted on their El President Patrick Lee-Lo a number of times.

Thanks to the tip-line, members of the ‘FISH GANG’ are looking at calling a special meeting seeking to dissolve the Society. Good job I say.

Spotless Facility Services (NZ) have to most to gain by saying ‘yeah, nah’ to keeping the BSC going. You see those Aussie directors have been asking questions about what they get for the $20,000 a year membership spanking.  Read more »

Teacher Unions are the same the world over. They all believe that their education sectors are “national treasures” despite results and empirical evidence to the contrary.

Every now and then a politician comes along to challenge them and they become public enemy number one for daring to challenge the status quo.

Michael Gove was ridiculed by the president of the National Association of Head Teachers, who compared him to a hyperactive personal trainer.

“At times it feels as though we are at the whim of some kind of fanatical personal trainer, constantly urging us all to go faster, faster, higher and higher on a constant treadmill,” Bernadette Hunter told delegates attending the organisation’s annual conference in Birmingham.  Read more »

We don’t have to look far to know what will happen if a Green led Labour coalition wins government. One word…Detroit.

No one knows better how to kill the goose that laid the golden egg than a union boss.

A union is demanding cooks at a gas plant off the West Australian coast be paid $230,000 a year, prompting federal government warnings that excessive wage claims could kill Australia’s resources “golden goose”.

A bargaining request from the Maritime Union of Australia wants cooks at the Ichthys gas field working on offshore oil and gas project support vessels to be paid a base salary of $131,050, reports revealed on Tuesday.

Penalty rates would potentially add another $100,000 per annum to their salary.

In response, federal Resources and Energy Minister Gary Gray urged caution from all unions, saying overseas investment in large resources projects could be scared off by rising costs.

Read more »

As at 31st May 2013 the Unite Union have failed to file their 2011 and 2012 Financial Accounts.

Observation by the Owl

This is a breach of the laws regarding being a Union and being registered with the Incorporated Societies Office.

Any employer could if they wish not negotiate with the Unite union until their status was confirmed.

Interesting question for the Registrar and lawyers to debate.

Tony Abbott is pledging to crack down on dodgy union officials…he sure has his work cut out for him:

Unveiling his industrial relations policy in Sydney – four months before the next election – the Opposition Leader and his workplace relations spokesman Eric Abetz said the Labor scare campaign that the Coalition would bring back Work Choices needed to end, because it was now absolutely clear that was not the case.  Read more »

The Fiji Attorney-General and Tourism Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum has ripped into the fact free attack on Fijian tourism by the CTU and in particular Peter Conway’s comments.

Conway, who last visited Fiji over 6 years ago is clearly only getting his information from his fellow union brothers in Fiji who aren’t that happy with having their previous lucrative rorting stopped by the Bainimarama government.

Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum responds to Peter Conway. The comments about Fiji Airways are good too.

The Attorney-General and Tourism Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum  replied to Conway, not by attacking him or the overseas unions, but  by accusing  trade unionists in Fiji of being behind a new international campaign to hurt the country’s important tourism industry and those depending on it for a living.  He is “confident that our visitors will see this propaganda for what it is – a crude attempt to punish Fiji for its reforms, which are designed, amongst other things, to erode the ability of a handful of elites to use their power to damage the Fijian economy and work against the Fijian people.

“This same hegemony of four or five unionists time and time again continues to demonstrate a disdain for ordinary Fijians by wilfully misrepresenting the situation in Fiji. “Overall, we believe the impact of this petition will be minimal. Our visitors – like the Fijian employees – are smart enough to see through it.”

“For trade union leaders to encourage a tourism boycott – an industry that supports the livelihoods of tens of thousands of Fijian families – is the height of selfishness and irresponsibility. A boycott would not only threaten the livelihoods of those directly employed by the tourism industry and their families, but also the livelihoods of all those who play a supporting role in the industry: the taxi drivers, the airline and airport employees, women and men who produce handicrafts and the list goes on.  Read more »

Croz Walsh give Peter Conway a good old fashioned shellacking, but in his ever so polite fashion, over the CTU’s campaign to hurt Fiji workers.

Peter Conway urges tourists to talk to local people to find out what is really going on.  But to my knowledge, he has not been to Fiji for at least six years and his only source of local information is from the Fiji unionists he is supporting — who the A-G thinks are behind this latest move by the ANZ unionists.

So hasn’t been in Fiji for more than 6 years and he is spouting on about conditions there?

More importantly, where does he get information to support his claim that “sixty percent of of people earning a wage are living below the poverty line.”?  It is the highest figure ever mentioned.  Some have talked of 35%, others of 45-50% but these lower guesstimates are about “people” — not “people earning a wage.”

“People” is a far more inclusive term.  It includes the employed and unemployed, children, old people and rural people in the subsistence sector. If we multiply Conway’s 60% with the Ministry of Labour’s 171,865 workers in Fiji  and then multiple each worker by three (workers plus their dependents), the result is 309,357 people, or about 35% of the estimated population.  A far cry from Conway’s inflated 60%.  Read more »

The Aussie and Kiwi unions have launched a campaign that will only try to hurt the economy of Fiji by targeting holiday-makers.

Trade unions in Australia and New Zealand have joined forces in a campaign to get tourists visiting Fiji to support workers rights.