THE UNIONIST: Viral campaign, fire at will, KiwiSaver, ACC, Runanga hui

In The Unionist this week: the CTU's online campaign, Fire at Will bill, KiwiSaver, ACC, Runanga panel and McDonalds workers fight for better wages.

Election 08: Fairness at Work campaign goes online 

The union movement’s Fairness at Work campaign has gone online, with the launch this week of the first of three election videos.

“We have prepared a wide range of resources such as graphs, leaflets, analysis, policy documents for workers this election,” Council of Trade Unions president Helen Kelly said.

“But as this is election is in part turning out to be the 'YouTube election', we wanted to be part of that, and these clips are intended to be a humorous contribution from us to the campaign!”

Check out the video now from the CTU’s YouTube channel: http://nz.youtube.com/nzctu, and while you're there, subscribe to the videos or bookmark the page, because there will be more where this came from!

The clip featured on TV3's Sunrise programme yesterday, click here to see it on the 3 News website (or the 3 News piece is also here on YouTube).  Also on TV3 this week was CTU Economist Peter Conway speaking about latest inflation figures - click here.

National spokespeople at odds over Fire at Will Bill

The NZEI Te Riu Roa is calling on the National Party to stop sending conflicting messages and get its spokespeople singing from the same song sheet.

In a video on YouTube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ir2anqvJ-Dc it is clear the party is confused about whether teachers and education workers would be exempt from its proposed 90 Day trial policy, NZEI says.

On the one hand education spokesperson Anne Tolley says the policy is not intended to apply to teachers, while on the other, industrial relations spokesperson Kate Wilkinson insists it will cover any workplace of less than 20 people.

NZEI National Secretary Paul Goulter says the National Party is obviously confused over how it intends to apply the 90 Day policy. “It should get its story straight and get its spokespeople on the same page,” he says.

It is time the party came clean on its intentions. There are thousands of schools and early childhood centres with less than 20 workers and the policy could have profound implications on professional and career development, and exacerbate teacher supply and shortage issues, NZEI said.

Election 08: KiwiSaver - Worth Voting For

An IRD evaluation of KiwiSaver out yesterday shows the scheme is a big benefit to low income workers, and unions say National should pull back on their plan to take the axe to the scheme. 

An Inland Revenue Evaluation of the first year of KiwiSaver shows that half of salary and wage earners in KiwiSaver were earning less than $30,000, and 80% were earning $50,000 or under. It also showed that 86 percent of KiwiSaver members are in paid employment.

“This shows that KiwiSaver is of significant benefit to low income workers,” Helen Kelly said.

National’s proposed reductions to the minimum government, employer and worker contributions would mean that a KiwiSaver aged 30 years old currently earning $40,000, would by the age of 65 be shortchanged by $116,438 under National’s changes.

“Low income workers will be worse off under National.  Right now, a worker on the minimum wage has a member tax credit worth 4%, and their employer contributions are totally covered by employer tax credits. This makes it easier to get employer co-operation and harder for employers to argue workers’ contributions should come out of a lower wage increase, which is exactly what is at risk under National’s proposals.”

Election 08 - Nobody wants ACC privatised.

It would seem no one - except perhaps insurance companies - wants a return to competition in the provision of accident compensation services, writes Maria Slade in the New Zealand Herald today.  Not even business groups are keen for a repeat of the brief period in 1998 and 1999 when the last National Government privatised the sector.  Click here for more.

Election 08 - MPs front up to Runanga

MPs from Labour, the Maori Party, the Greens and New Zealand First spoke at a political panel organised by Te Runanga on Nga Kaimahi Maori - the CTU Runanga on Tuesday night. 

The panel was part of a Runanga hui at Orongomai Marae in Upper Hutt this week.

Click here to see a story on the political panel that screened on Maori Television this week.

INDUSTRIAL: campaign continues for McDonalds workers

The latest lunch and dinner strikes in south and west Auckland and in Hamilton this week come hot on the heels of McDonald’s Corporation announcing a third quarter profit of $1.07 billion.

Unite union is campaigning for better pay for McDonalds workers.  Rolling strikes by workers in some of New Zealand’s poorest suburbs are being used to put pressure on the company to match what it’s competitor Restaurant Brands (KFC, Starbucks and Pizza Hut) pays union members. Fulltime managers and crew at Restaurant Brands are paid $20.80 to $174.40 a week more than McDonald’s workers.

“It’s disgusting the world largest fast food corporation is gloating over its soaring profits while the majority of its crew are stuck on minimum wage and managers are paid less than $15 an hour. It is however a true reflection of the world economy with the rich getting richer and making sure the poor stay poor,” said Unite Union National Director Mike Treen.

Click here for coverage on 3 News of the Otara picket last month.

Election 2008 events - in the week ahead.

There are many, many events coming up in the final 2 weeks!   Click here for full details.

Events in the week ahead include Labour Day activities in Auckland, Christchurch and Dunedin, Hollow Men screenings, and loads of election candidates meetings.