Fairness @ Work Plays of the Week Issue 8

Welcome to Plays of the Week - a weekly heads up from the Council of Trade Unions Fairness @ Work campaign.  Tips, tools and news to help you start worksite conversations each week about the real stories this election.  Print off or forward 'Plays of the Week' to workmates, family and friends, and better still let them know they can sign up for it from the CTU website.

Strong public services are worth voting for 
Our public services and state assets have been built up by generations of Kiwis, and we all benefit from them.  But they are under threat this election.  Tax cuts are already coming – worth about 10 billion dollars.  National have said they want bigger tax cuts, but to pay for them there will need to be cuts in public services and/or more user-pays in areas like health or on our roads.  Or there will need to be increased debt, through more borrowing overseas, but this is risky given the state of global financial markets.

Privatisation list grows
Meanwhile the growing list of state assets that National wants to privatise is a concern.  National now thinks it is okay for private companies to own our hospitals, schools, universities and polytechnics.  National has already said it would privatise workers’ accident compensation.  And their proposal to have toll roads will also not help at a time when workers are already facing higher food, petrol and housing costs.

Did you know?
Did you know - that in a recent survey, 71 percent of people said they would rather keep taxes and user charges at their current levels, than have tax cuts and increased user charges?  Kiwis don’t want more user pays in road tolls, or to see the cost of going to the doctor go up, if that is what will happen in order to pay for large tax cuts. 

What's happening 
Check out this page for election events in your area: http://union.org.nz/event.  This week there are more election candidates meetings and film screenings.  

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