A-Infos (en) Australia, Anarchist AWSM newsletter - Solidarity #5

Contents: ---- * The bad days have begun: Job cuts and a partial wage freeze ---- * Trade 
Unionists sentenced to jail in Kanaky - * 100 Waikato dairy workers locked out - * Burgers 
and Circuses ---- The bad days have begun: Job cuts and a partial wage freeze -- The ‘deep 
recession’ (depression) is starting to bite, and it will get much worse. Unemployment is 
forecast to rise to 8% next year (or 180,000 people). Because the dole is set so pitifully 
low, heaps of people are going onto benefits that pay a wee bit more. Now there are almost 
as many sickness beneficiaries as there are people on the dole. All in all, there are now 
310,000 beneficiaries, up from 258,000 last year. ---- The people who seem to be 
disproportionately hit with unemployment are low-paid workers, such as Maori and Pacific 
people.

But another section of the working class that’s getting thwacked is government workers. 
Government razor gangs have been going through departmental budgets cutting jobs all over 
the show. As a result, over 2000 government workers up and down the country have lost 
their jobs this year. It’s not just Wellington that is getting hit. For example, the 
entire offices of the Tertiary Education Commission in Christchurch and Rotorua have been 
shut. These cuts are just a beginning: the chief Treasury ideologue has announced they are 
going for a much leaner, meaner state (again), with large scale privatisation (again) and 
contracting out. Anyone up for revisiting the cruel savageries of the 1980s and early 
1990s again? Benefit cuts perhaps?

The government has also begun to enforce its promised wage freeze on government workers. 
It appears that government workers will get no cost-of-living increase. This is 
effectively a wage cut given inflation. It looks like that the only government workers 
getting a wage increase this year are those who have it in their contracts, such as those 
who negotiated a wage increase last year. So it’s a partial wage freeze, with the threat 
of a full wage freeze later on.

So what is the response of the Public Service Association (PSA), the biggest union in New 
Zealand with about 57,000 members, to the wage freeze and cuts? All they seem to do is 
write a few letters to the government complaining about it, and sign hollow agreements to 
re-deploy workers (the vast majority haven’t so far, unsurprisingly). The PSA are victims 
of their ‘Partnership for Quality’ ideology. It’s really a partnership for inequality: 
meaning letting the government screw government workers over, under the disguise of a 
‘partnership’. The government is a tough and aggressive employer. As a result, most 
government workers are underpaid, overworked and over-managed. In contrast, managers sit 
on their arses and live it up on ridiculous salaries, and get their kicks out of 
subjecting workers to stupid, irrelevant and plain crazy management philosophies. The time 
when government work was cruisy and well-paid was long ago. Sure, it’s better paid and 
less menial work than flipping burgers, but you’re still exploited – even if you wear a 
white collar.

Partnership with bosses does not work. Struggle against them does. And heaps of government 
workers agree, and dislike the PSA for not doing much at all. Some are, rumour has it, 
starting to take direct action on the job, without official blessing from the PSA. We hear 
that workers are going home once their 40 hours are up regardless of whether they have met 
their targets and workloads, leaving managers fuming. Also, in protest against the wage 
freeze, they are creating work for managers through putting in silly requests. There are 
rumours that some are working to rule. Given this anger from below, it will be interesting 
to see how the PSA attempts to avoid going on strike this year. Let’s hope the workers can 
outmanoeuvre ‘their’ union.

Trade Unionists sentenced to jail in Kanaky

Six trade unionists in Kanaky (New Caledonia) have been sentenced to jail and a further 18 
union activists received suspended sentences! Gerard Jodar, leader of the Union of Kanaky 
and Exploited Workers (USTKE), was sentenced to one year prison. Mr Safoka, who works 
closely with Mr Jodar, has also been condemned to one year in jail. Two other union 
activists were given ten months of jail, another one six months, another one four months.

The convictions stem from a industrial dispute with Air Caledonie in May, when hundreds of 
people stormed Magenta airport.

Speaking to reporters, the USTKE founder and leader of the Labour Party, Louis Kotra 
Uregei, questions the type of justice that send unionists to prison. “I strongly condemn 
this type of decision and I’m calling on those who have trusted us and trust us to fight 
alongside us so that this country one day frees itself of this colonial justice.”

Large marches were held in Nouméa on Saturday 4th July to demand the freedom of all the 
political prisoners.

Links

USTKE (In French)
http://www.ustke.org/

LabourStart New Caledonia
http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/show_news.pl?country=New+Caledonia

100 Waikato dairy workers locked out

100 dairy workers at Open Country Cheese have been issued with a 6 week lockout notice 
from their jobs, in response to their attempts to seek a collective agreement with their 
employer than ensures their hours cannot be changed on a whim, that they are entitled to 
redundancy payments and other improvements to their working conditions.

The workers, members of the Dairy Workers Union (DWU), are employed at Open Country’s 
factory in Waharoa, near Matamata in the Waikato. In an attempt to get the workers to 
abandon collective action, Open Country are willing to lift the lockout notice for any 
worker who leaves the DWU.

James Ritchie, the National Secretary of the DWU, has detailed the demands of the workers:

There is no wage increase on the table. Workers are seeking a collective agreement which 
protects them from being made temporary or casual at any time. They want a say on how 
their rosters and hours of work can be changed so their family lives are not disrupted 
without notice and consultation. They want temp workers to be paid the same rate for the 
job after 3 months. They want temp workers to be made permanent after 11 months service. 
They want redundancy compensation if made redundant and they want to be paid for a meal 
break if they can’t leave the plant. - Most of all they want to be treated as human 
beings- not a commodity to be tossed aside when no longer required. They want decent jobs.

Open Country was founded by former National Party cabinet minister Wyatt Creech, and 
shareholders include Prime Minister John Key and the Talleys Group. In a further quirk to 
this particular industrial dispute, dairy is legally classified as an ‘essential 
industry’, meaning that longer than normal periods of notice for industrial action must be 
given.

The 100 workers at Open Country need support and solidarity from across the country during 
their lockout period. Lasting 6 weeks without pay is not easy under any circumstances, let 
alone one in a period of recession.

Burgers and Circuses

(Note: This is the script of a movie due to be played in your town in the near future.)

Scene: Clown in a loud suit stands outside a windswept and much repaired tent. The tent 
has a broken sign on it labelled ‘Job Circus’.

Promoter: “Roll up folks, roll up! Are you young and unemployed?”

Unemployed Youth: “Um yeah, I guess that would be me”

Promoter: “Looking for an exciting career with a stable and dynamic employer? Need some 
help getting started?”

Unemployed Youth: “Stable and dynamic eh? That sounds good. The help thing would be great 
too.”

Promoter: “Step this way. Enter the tent and wonders await you”

Scene: The unemployed youth enters the tent. The promoter smiles as a government car pulls up.

Promoter: [laughing]: “Pulled in another sucker”

Government Minister: “Great! Here’s your $16,000. You’re doing a great job there 
Ronald…keep it up mate”

Scene: Inside the tent. The youth is given a uniform, name badge and mop.

Promoter: “OK kid, get pushing on the mop, it’s your new friend so use it well. Anybody 
out front sees you, don’t forget to smile, this is show business remember! If you do well, 
we’ll have you out on the counter selling cheap nutritious circus food in colourful 
packages in no time.”

Scene: Next day at a Parliamentary media conference.

Government Minister: “In these difficult times the government appreciates the need to 
maintain productivity and has a commitment to investing in the future. We want a well 
trained and highly skilled workforce that can compete with the rest of the world. We have 
therefore entered into a partnership with a great circus promoter. We will give them 
money, they will employ new staff and the economy will get a boost. Everybody wins!”

Skeptical Voice: “But do we really need more circuses? Wouldn’t we be better off with new 
schools, hospitals, roads and stuff? Why does the circus need our money to do it anyway? 
They aren’t exactly poor!”

Minister: “We’re all in this together and you can’t get circus monkeys without paying for 
peanuts you know! Anyway, moving on…”

Scene: 89 days later inside the tent.

Promoter: “What do you mean you want a living wage, the work is repetitive and 
unrewarding, you are rostered to work at odd times and the food is crap anyway? You’re not 
a team player are you? How can we keep this place stable and dynamic with your negative 
attitude?!”

Youth: “Well, um, this circus stuff isn’t exactly what you made out it would be”

Promoter: “Yeah, unhappy eh? Hit the road. You’re outta here! And don’t steal the mop or 
touch the cycling monkeys on the way out!”

Scene: Outside the tent it’s cold and windy. A governmental car speeds by with its 
occupants in good spirits.

Government Minister: ”Nice one Ronald. Would you like to upsize your champagne? Need more 
money? Need more suckers?”

Promoter: “Don’t mind if I do. Anything to help the economy you know!”

Window winds down as the car speeds past newly unemployed youth. Minister pulls out megaphone.

Minister: “Hi! Don’t forget, we’re working for you, so remember to vote next election!”

Mud splashes upwards into youths face.
Screen fades to black.
_________________________________________
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