In Brief PDF Print E-mail
Tuesday, 30 November 1999 00:00

Unions: The beginning of the recovery?
Total membership of trade unions has increased - for the first time since 1985.
 
According to a detailed annual survey conducted by Victoria University's Industrial Relations Centre, the number of workers belonging to a union rose by 16,100 to 319,000 between 1999 and 2000.
 
These figures are also reflected in a just-released Labour Department report, which confirms the increase and shows that 17.7% of the total workforce is now unionised, representing a 5.7% increase in membership since December 1999.
 
There was also a dramatic increase in the total number of unions - which rose from 82 to 134. This is thought to be due to collectives of workers registering as unions in order to allow them to negotiate with bosses under the new Employment Relations Act (ERA).
 
But the vast majority of new union members have joined established trade unions.
 
There are two important conclusions that follow from this.
 
Firstly, the ERA seems to have achieved Labour's key aim of formalising negotiations between workers and bosses through the union officials, and of strengthening the position of those officials. Under National's Employment Contracts Act, up to 14% of workers bargained through non-union "workplace collectives."
 
By limiting bargaining rights to registered trade unions, Labour's aim is not primarily to increase union membership, or "give the unions more power," but to ensure that union officials with a stake in maintaining "industrial peace" and "good relations" with employers, are more firmly in control of workplace negotiations.
 
The second point relates to the underlying reason why Labour urgently wants to formalise these workplace negotiations: that is, after years  of decline, the union movement is gradually starting to rise from its sickbed and recover.
 
We have, after record low levels of industrial action, seen a number of small strikes break out in recent months. The point is not that these are still tightly controlled by the officials, or that their demands are still very limited, but that Labour and the bosses know that it is only a matter of time before the logic of these struggles inevitably forces them to go outside the "official" and "legal" arenas of action.
 
In the next few years the union officials will slowly regain the confidence to call industrial actions. But rank-and-file organisation too will also recover, and, inevitably, workers will be forced to relearn the lessons of the last upturn of the 1960s and 70s - in particular, the need for workers to organise strong independent rank-and-file movements. As these movements develop, the space will once again open up for a wider audience for socialist ideas and politics within the working class.
Andrew Cooper
 
 
 
 
Who owns Air New Zealand?
Who cares?
The battle for corporate control of Air New Zealand has been getting a lot of headline space in the mainstream media over the last couple of months. Singapore Airlines, who already own a substantial share in the company, want to increase their shares in Air New Zealand and are trying to get the Labou-Alliance Government to alter a piece of "Kiwi Share" legislation - guaranteeing that a certain percentage of Air NZ remains in New Zealand hands - so they'll be able to do so. The Labou-Alliance Government and the Australian government have met several times to discuss the deal, and much has been made by Labour of the importance of having a "Kiwi stake" in "our" national airline.
 
This kind of argument and concern has only one motivation: to try and make us forget who our real enemy is. What difference does it make whether your boss is a New Zealander or Singaporean? They'll exploit you either way and, even if they happen to live in the same country as you, you'll never see a cent of the massive profits they make. The arguments made in favour of guaranteeing New Zealand ownership are at best misguided attempts by sympathetic left-wingers to keep money in the country and at worst an example of cynical racism on the part of the Right to distract us as they rip us off.
 
Either way they do nothing to help workers. Even calling Air New Zealand "our" airline is a joke - since when did we have a say in how it was run? Ever since it was put on the stockmarket, Air New Zealand has done nothing but cut basic services in the interests of getting a bigger profit for their shareholders, both here and overseas.
 
No matter who owns Air New Zealand, it will never be "our" airline until it is re-nationalised and made a state run service to meet the travel needs of ordinary working families. But that would be a policy too radical for business buddies Helen Clark and Jim Anderton. The only way we can get them to begin to reverse the damage caused by New Right attacks we've suffered over the last seventeen years is by fighting for change ourselves. That would be something actually worth reporting, instead of more boring in-fighting between different sections of the ruling class as to who gets the bigger share of the airline toy.
Dougal McNeill
 
 
 
 
Waterfront update
The latest round of the waterfront dispute opened with fifty protesters staging a peaceful sit-down protest outside the Port of Bluff on the morning of the 4 June. For the last seven months Carter Holt Harvey has been using Tauranga-based Mainland Stevedoring to load logs at South Island ports in a bid to smash the New Zealand Waterfront Workers' Union and drive down wages and conditions.
 
Despite a High Court injunction barring the union from taking any kind of action that might endanger the profitability of Carter Holt, members of the Bluff community turned out in a powerful display of solidarity with local watersiders. They were joined by people from as far away as Dunedin and Invercargill, all united in their determination to stop Carter Holt from using scab labour on the waterfront through a strategy of non-violent direct action.
 
While the protesters sat down and linked arms in the roadway, the police launched a violent attack in which one woman sustained several broken ribs and bruised kidneys while six people - including one member of the International Socialists - were arrested and charged with "disorderly behaviour likely to cause violence." They are pleading not guilty to the charge and their case has been set down for trial on 17 September.
Tim Bowron
 
 
 
 
The globalisation of revolt reaches
Papua New Guinea
Further proof of the violence of global capitalism - this time on our own back doorstep in Papua New Guinea. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have been demanding that the PNG Government introduce "structural adjustment reforms" so that it can meet its foreign debt repayments and keep investors happy. Prime Minister Mekere Morauta pledged to implement a programme of state sector privatisation, involving mass sackings, cuts to services and more user-pays.
 
In response the people of Papua New Guinea took to the streets, and on June 21 university students and workers laid siege to the prime minister's offices in Port Moresby. Police refused an order to fire on the peaceful demonstrators, and Morauta was forced to fly in private paramilitaries from their regular station protecting the mining interests of corporate scumbags like BHP and Rio Tinto in the PNG highlands.
 
These hired thugs then broke up the blockade before opening fire with machine guns, wounding at least 60 and leaving six people (including a child) dead. Media reports later reversed the order of events by claiming that the shootings were in response to rioting and looting on the part of the protesters. However, even the ABC was forced to admit that the burning down of a department store in which Prime Minister Morauta owned shares occurred only after the massacre had already taken place.
 
Transport and wharf workers immediately went on strike and the PNG Trades and Union Council called for a general strike. In the meantime a number of activists have "disappeared" and the authorities have responded by declaring martial law. Through all of this has come the realisation that in the words of one PNG activist: "We are not just fighting against the IMF and the World Bank, it is now apparent that we are also fighting our own government."
Tim Bowron
 
 
 
 
Partial victory at Sanford
Workers at the Sanford salmon processing plant in Bluff voted to return to work on 22 August after a nine week dispute. They achieved pay increases of up to 8.6%, but unfortunately failed to win a multi-site agreement covering both Bluff and Timaru.
 
But perhaps more importantly, there was fantastic unity amongst the workers which drew in support from the tightly-knit working class community in Bluff. The local paper, the Southland Times, which is not generally noted for its left-wing bias, reported that the workers held out for nine weeks because "of money from the union and community support  shops donated food vouchers and [people] shook their hands in the street." Sanford workers performed voluntary work in return.
 
At least one bakery refused to supply goods to management.
 
"Bluff workers took their dispute to the community, marching up and down the main street or at rugby games with banners."
Andrew Cooper
 
 
 
 
GM whitewash
The report of the Royal Commission on Genetic Modification has ignored the overwhelming majority of public submissions (over 92%) that were opposed to lifting the current moratorium on GE trials. Instead, it has chosen to bow to the interests of big business who insist that genetic engineering is vital to New Zealand's economic future, and in doing so it has shown its utter contempt for people's concerns.
 
On 27 July a nationwide rally was held to show opposition to the release of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) into the environment. Organisers were quick to point out that they were not opposed to the use of genetic engineering for medical research, likening the decision to become GE free with New Zealand's anti-nuclear stance, which has not prevented nuclear technology from being used in controlled situations like hospitals. In Dunedin over 150 people attended the rally, which attracted a wide range of speakers and was undoubtedly one of the most vibrant and colourful protest events in the city for some time.
 
Support for the campaign is growing, and has already led to the formation of a Dunedin-based group, the Coalition for a GE Free Environment, which is committed to ensuring that the Government extends the moratorium on field trials so that the issue can be decided in a referendum at the next election. Meanwhile actions are being held up and down the country to put further pressure on the Government and local businesses.
Tim Bowron