The Unionist this week reports on the National Party and wages, new health and safety guidelines, and an innovative new project taking unionism to the voluntary sector.

The Council of Trade Unions has welcomed a new health and safety information pack released by the Minister of Labour today, and says that the challenge now is to implement good practises.

When the inevitable point scoring debate about the size of the public service takes place during this year’s election campaign, it will be important for us to think about who these public servants are and whether we want a society where these services are maintained, or whether we want one without them, or where we have to pay for them privately, CTU president Helen Kelly said in a column.

“Margaret Wilson will be remembered by unions for her work as former Minister of Labour in rebuilding the modern employment law framework we now operate in,” Council of Trade Unions president Helen Kelly said today, following her annoucement that she will retire from Parliament at the next election.

“John Key and National need to front up with some consistency on wages, after comments reported yesterday about his desire for wages to drop,” said Council of Trade Unions president Helen Kelly.

The trade union movement is gathering over the next two days in Rotorua to assess and develop union building strategies, further develop its political strategy, and hear from the successes of the Australian Work Rights campaign at their last election, CTU president Helen Kelly said today.

The CTU today welcomed the statement from the PM that their top priority in Government has been to improve both living standards and the services people need.

Helen Kelly, CTU President said that “the comprehensive statement to Parliament indicates that while a lot has been done – there is also a lot more to do”.

The Council of Trade Unions says there are still concerning questions remaining about the exposure of New Zealanders to asbestos, following the Patea fire this week.

“Have we got adequate guidelines to cover situations like what occurred in Patea this week, when it is still unclear what asbestos risk remains in this community?,” CTU secretary Carol Beaumont said.

The Unionist returns this week and reports on major political speeches in the last fortnight and new employment figures out this week which has seen wages and incomes, skills and the economy dominate early on this election year.  We also summarise CTU upcoming events in the weekly events calendar.

“The government’s broad economic agenda around skills, infrastructure and productivity, underpinned by a commitment to fairness, is a welcome signal,” CTU president Helen Kelly said today.

Record low unemployment figures out today are good news, and enable a renewed focus in 2008 on supporting those in work to lift skills, as well as try to go even lower than 3.4 percent for the unemployment rate, CTU secretary Carol Beaumont said today.

“The labour market has been tight for 6 years – yet wage growth has been modest to say the least in that period,” CTU Economist Peter Conway said today in response to latest wage figures from Statistics New Zealand.