Along with many of my Labour colleagues I attended the rallies this lunchtime in support of low paid workers in the state sector. The rally in Wellington was very well attended by workers from hospital laundries, kitchen and wards, school support staff and other state sector workers who have been offered a nil pay rise in contracts. These people are among the lowest paid in the state sector ($14/hr for the hospital workers or teacher aides) but who do some of the most important work in our schools and hospitals.
They are well aware we live in tight times- they experience the impact of it every day as they try to put food on the table and pay their bills. They are asking in the first instance just to have the respect of some consideration of their claim, and then for a fair deal. This is not about some fanciful notion of a bloated public sector- these are the people who keep our core public services going.
Smaller group in Taupo – with four MPs – no show from local member. Messages the same though.
Is this a caption contest..?
“Solidarity..!”
These people are important and they deserve fair pay!
Thanks for reporting on Wellington, I wrote a little bit, with a couple of pics about the Auckland event:
http://thehandmirror.blogspot.com/2009/11/low-pay-no-way.html
Labour MPs Darien Fenton, Carol Beaumont and Phil Twyford were there, along with Phil Goff who gave a very raucous speech. I think I may have seen David Shearer too? David Clendon and Keith Locke were there from the Greens. Well done SFWU and others for a great event.
Spud says these people are important and deserve fair pay. I could not agree more. But with one rider – Each person can and should only expect to be paid according to their economic worth and contribution. The left always want the lowest paid to be paid more – but the reality is that any business should only pay a person what the market can demand. Should the business pay more than what the market is demanding is a recipe for economic disaster. The cleaners and teacher aids have made decisions in life that has meant there are limited job prospects beyond their skill set. They actually have the choice (albeit difficult when in a rut) to upskill and try and find a higher paying job elsewhere. No one forces them to be a cleaner or teacher aid.
I can appreciate that they want more money – and that being the case they have the freedom to go and work at Pak’n’save with a second job if they want additional money. With the Government running severe deficits (thanks to Labour’s mismanagement of the economy) there simply is not the available funds to increase their wages – more money cannot simply be printed to deal with this problem.
Monty do you actually have any understanding of what Teacher Aides do? I strongly suggest you watch this short video of teacher aides/learning assistants talking about their work before you continue to spout your nonsense that they are paid enough already:
http://www.fairdeal.org.nz/video/support-staff-campaign-video-1
And how come more money can be found for Ministers’ pet projects? For pay increases for public service CEOs? For Don Brash’s taskforce which we all know will just reheat all that dross from the 90s that we thought we had got past?
And if the tax cuts your party promoted for years had happened the deficits would have been way worse. And you are also from the party that opposes support for people to do further education. Don’t think you are onto a winner here Monty.
Thanks Julie for the post on the Auckland rally, Grant on the Wellington one and Trev on Taupo. There were 27 Labour MPs out at the rallies today from Kaitaia to Invercargill. Would be good to hear from others how it went. Phil Goff was greeted like a hero in Auckland.
I heard during the rally that the Southland Times workers also joined the strike and action today in protest against their wage freeze.
This movement will grow I reckon.
And Monty – how come money could be found for tax cuts for the rich but those earning under $40,000 got nothing?
Let’s pay them $140 an hour. Sean, unnecessary and provocative. This is a warning Clare
Sean you are banned for three months. You know why Clare
Darien and Trevor – In respect of tax cuts – they were very affordable at the time when the Labour Government was enjoying massive surpluses. Instead Cullen narrowed the tax base significantly by introducing Working for families and wasting (yes wasting) money on his train set – I am sure that the money wasted on the trainset could easily have funded the wag increases for the lowest paid. You government promised that only 5% of the top earners would pay the then 39% tax. By the time those struggling on $70,000 finally got a tax break there was probably 15% paying the high level of tax. It is also an insult to the hard working kiwis that Labour bled dry to fund their social programs to call them rich for finally getting a very modest tax cut.
But sice you are the smart politician – can you please explain the consequences of paying someone more than their economic worth and contribution? Especially when there will need to be additonal borrowing to fund those pay increases. The problem with the left is that you do not consider the consequences of popularist and socialist policies.
don’t forget the Huntly miners striking for a fair pay rise.
I am really annoyed watching all these strikes/protests over a lack of pay increases .. why I hear you ask .. well because, as I have said before, I have started to lose workmates to so called early retirement and now redundancy so why should ANYONE demand a payrise during these tight times from the public purse when our private company are laying off my mates.
Previously, some were saying my comments that money was tight is BS .. well, I can only assume they are in safe well paying jobs .. unlike my workmates.
Darien .. re people under $40,000 getting nothing while the “rich” get tax cuts. That is true and the 1st time in years that the “rich” get to keep some of THEIR money while those under $40,000, and those with dependants, have for years got something for nothing.
What is it about people who earn lots of money through their talents that upsets you so much?
Love the images from the Auckland rally – video here is wonderful.
Is there someway that Red Alert could use this video??
http://www.3news.co.nz/Goff-smothered-in-kisses-at-strike/tabid/209/articleID/131632/cat/772/Default.aspx
“And Monty – how come money could be found for tax cuts for the rich but those earning under $40,000 got nothing?”
WFF – remember that? You’ve already doled out your fair share of welfare to these people not to mention all the other forms of assistance low income families get.
They are the working poor. New Zealand’s going to have to get used to having loads of them dragged down by a far too generous welfare state and massive public sector that the country cannot afford.
Or you could increase NZ’s GDP and productivity.
the idea that NZ Inc can only survive by squeezing the lowest paid is so economically illiterate it really doesn’t deserve a reply. Actually we could try getting the mega-rich to pay a fair whack instead of avoiding taxes, then the people doing these vital jobs could get a pay rate that reflects their value to society.
“Actually we could try getting the mega-rich to pay a fair whack instead of avoiding taxes”
They are. That is precisely your problem. Newsflash Dot – New Zealand doesn’t have enough “mega-rich” people left or there in the first place.
What do you call mega-rich btw? $70k a year?
@ Monty: the usual tory mantra applied to exorbitant CEO salaries “if you pay peanuts you get…” does not seem to apply for you to the lower paid. These workers are in the vital health and education sector. Not all Nat voters use private hospitals and schools so dissing these workers is potentially fraught with personal consequences–unhygenic hospitals, lower student achievement. I could understand your monetarist attitude perhaps if the freeze applied to say fast food workers, but it is not very bright to support the downgrading of social services for so many obvious reasons.
I attended Kaitaia Rally on a busy intersection, about 25 vocal people and good support from passers by and motorists. Hundreds of flyers and stickers handed out.
is there any news about the Huntly East mine strike? I’m interested to know if any Labour MP’s have visited the site to support their pay increase.
No but I’m sure we will at some stage Jabba
hope so .. I would suggest some people will be put off work soon because of a lack of coal .. many are EMPU members as well so not sure what’s really going on there.
I think this is a tricky one. One the one hand, I agree without a doubt that Teacher aides and other core service help is essential – and from my experience, they work hard and take home pay is low. For Teacher aides, they don’t get paid across the whole year – they work term time only and all up its around 40 weeks. They also work smaller hours than the average, and many have to put up with some pretty tough characters. Quite a number are highly skilled and they are important support staff – without them – esp behaviour support workers, schools would more than struggle – society would, because these kids could not be catered for in the schooling system without help. Which leaves them to have to stay at home or worse, on the street(the kids not the TA’s). The pay is low because schools ops grants can not afford to pay at a high rate -even when they deserve it. Many support staff should be funded by govt directly – but thats a different educational argument best left for anther day.
As a leftie, I do worry about these things, but I have to say that the one thing that has bugged me re Labour, and one of the reasons Labs lost a lot of support, is that:
1. We on the left who earn a bit more support the leftist ideas of supporting those who are less well off and we support social service provision
BUT
2. Those who earn a little more (and I am sorry but, 70k to 100k does NOT make you rich – esp if you are a family with one income living in the city trying to meet the mortgage – you MAY have a little more for paying the power and food – but you sure as eggs are not rich) have been forgotten by Lab for many years. Cactus Kate is right – there are not enough ‘mega rich’ to target, and frankly, when you work your butt off but are still struggling, it just frustrates you to be called ‘rich’ and then lose all your pay to taxes.
Its is a good move to look at how tax is collected etc in NZ – its about time those that actually rip off the system (those who are big business but have skills in avoidance and the property investers who don’t have to pay CGT etc)give back – but it will be important to remember that those who earn a little more than the average can not be forgotten either – and the Labs forgot that – esp in the later part of their term. You can’t keep punishing those slightly higher earners in order to pay for the lower earner – because the good will of the next bracket gets stompled on and then it makes it harder to stay on the left side of the political road – OR worse still, they go offshore. The irony is that the middle to somewhat higher still want to support socialist policy – but get sick and tired of having to be the only ones who pay for it when the bigger fish get off the hook.
The thing that motivates the low paid workers who were out on strike on Friday is the utter hypocrisy of cabinet ministers on $250,000-plus per year telling those on under $30,000 a year to tighten their belts with a wage freeze when they have their snouts in the trough for payment of rent, payment of overseas trips with partners, payment of house cleaning, payment of flowers for their offices and payment of parking fines.
While some of your correspondents believe that this is the natural order of things under the market system, the low paid are fed up and are organising against it.
John .. all MP’s make good money, not just cabinet ministers. They get a reasonable pay to make HUGE decisions affecting us all.
I think you will find our PM (and previous PM’s) are paid a hell of a lot less than most Govt Dept Heads and especially many CEO’s. When you get into high positions you need to make some pretty painful decisions. Do you think cabinet ministers are over paid?