Posts by DexterX
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Hard News: Reputation and remuneration, in reply to Sacha,
One therefore wonders what particular expertise or mana they lent to the process.
Being kiss arsed, shallow, malleable and willful with it.
-
Muse: Freakanomics (TVNZ Edition), in reply to Sacha,
heh. politics such an obvious next step
Liz Shaw writes policy on the hoof very well - "I had fun, phuck you".
-
Hard News: A fiction of unalloyed darkness, in reply to Russell Brown,
Lifted from your link to - Hispanic Poultry Workers Live in New Southern Slums
The lack of affordable housing affects workers' health, safety, and family stability. Because good housing is so scarce, it is not uncommon to find several families or groups of men living in one ramshackle house, each paying rent for conditions few Americans would tolerate.
Could easily be NZ - the exception being that we generally tolerate these conditions.
Having a decent rate of unemployment helps and if you have a core of workers who insist on retaining terms and condition, being covered by a collective agreement and won’t take a drop in wages well then you just sack them and hire some one else.
It is iRONIC - that place where truth and fiction get fuzzy is the place where history is written/created everyone, these days, tends to write (make up) their own history/truth regardless of reality.
-
Never let the truth stand in the way of a good story.
-
-
Hard News: A storm in any port, in reply to martinb,
I did enjoy the show- but having watched it now it doesn't tally with Simon Wilson's editorial.
He says in that editorial "It seems plain in this dispute that the port does not want to reach a settlement...It suggests the negotiations were a pretext in a plan to destroy the union."
Like you I enjoyed the show and I agree with your sentiment:
It is interesting the nature of the work has been ignored.
The question that the Employment Court will answer shortly is “Does law – the workers right to negotiate a collective agreement - have any place in the NZ working environment.The POAL mass dismissal in favour of contracting out has reduced people to mere input units.
Should the MUNZ case fail it will be clear that workers have no “real” rights at law.
I feel that no matter what position MUNZ took on behalf of the workers they represent the outcome would have been the same - No Collective Employment Agreement (CEA) and mass dismissal.The journey that MUNZ were on was that they were looking to settle a Collective Employment Agreement - the POAL were looking to casualise the workforce and chase a 12% return - there has been nothing that I have read that shows how a casualised in experienced work force will produce that outcome.
An employment agreement that required people to work a 12-hour shift loading and unloading freight/containers onto and off ships I feel is dangerous particularly when the worker gets past the 10-hour mark in their working day. You add into that the flexible nature of the roster that is required - the company wants worker to chose between 5 and 12 hour shifts – you could well have people working several 12 hours shifts in a row. It become dangerous - the demand of having to concentrate on a task for significant periods and the complications and health affects of shift work.
Under the new deal that POAL are seeking people will get killed. However that won’t be their concern is that they are contracting out.
POAL have been disingenuous and spiteful – they have presented to the Public, and it has been swallowed by the Media, that port workers work 26 hours a week and earn $91. The truth of the matter is that people who work over 60 hours a week earn about $91 K.
I have no problem with people who work over 60 hours a week making near on $100K.
I agree with Rudman that “Feeble city leaders surrender right to a say on port”.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10792426
It is the thrust of things - govt policy – we are out sourcing democracy our right to elect people to make decision for us on the things we own has gone in favour of corporations that we cannot hold to account – the rate at which we do this will accelerate with the move to the super ministry.
We outsource everything in the pursuit of lower costs and better returns without any real plan to deliver just that.
Just do it – Think Super.
Should the MUNZ case fail and contracting out prevail at the Auckland Port there will workplace accidents that result from the nature of the change of the working conditions and to my mind there will be blood on a the hands of a lot of people who have effectively washed their hands of the issue – that includes Mayor Len Brown.
-
Hard News: The Vision Thing, in reply to Idiot Savant,
You can't just remove entire government functions by changing an organisation chart.
Watching Key interviewed on Campbell Live - the correct answer is:
Yes you can, and you can do that and more - they are embarking on a massive "change management process" of indefinite goals and no desired outcome - so much so that they are leaving it up to the process to give the re jigged public service its form and functionality – the needs of the public – public good won’t figure.
They are embarking on this course because firstly they can and secondly because they want to. All you need is a one-vote majority.
The slogan should be, "getting on with getting govt out of the business of govt". It will bite hardest in the small town and impoverished areas of "little" NZ.
-
Tis link is far more fun than what I intedned to post - I love Tuesday and dinner with Key.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/timaru-herald/opinion/steve-braunias/6560746/The-Secret-Diary-Of-Len-Brown
I was going to post on why facilitation hadn't tkane place and Prof Howarth morning report thang - along the lines that the MUNZ didn't see the dismissal bombshell as a real outcome of negotiation - and how "good" Labour Employment Policy left Unions and Workers with nothing but suboptimal outcomes.
Then fiinishing it all off with why POA/ Peasrons states their/his position as bullet proof - I was unclear whether they/he was asking that this be seriously tested?? Was it an open invitation?
-
Capture: Two Tripods, One Night, in reply to Geoff Lealand,
The 24 Hour Church of Elvis was the first virtual place I visited the very first time I used a browser and searched/surfed the net. My first search entry was 'Church of Elvis" which lead me to the 24 Hour Church of Elvis.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/24_Hour_Church_of_Elvis
You are truly blessed to have travelled there in person - it is one of the three things I want/wanted to do before my passing.
-
Capture: Two Tripods, One Night, in reply to Geoff Lealand,
Did you purchase anything from the 24 Hour Church of Elvis?
It would be a sin to travel so far, to stand in the holy place at the foot of your master and not imbibe of the great and wonderful bounty that he bestows upon one for a token.