Some union news
For those who haven't yet heard (and most in the SFWU diaspora seem to have, from all the texts and emails flying around) Jill Ovens is the new Northern Regional Secretary for the SFWU.
Len Richards has a great post up at newsoc about it all, including the speech Jill gave to the voting delegates. Having heard Jill speak on many occasions I'm sure she had a mighty impact, as the 68 to 44 vote shows.
Ovens has won this election against the odds. It's been a long time coming, but the changing of this guard at the SFWU can only mean good things for its members, and bad things for the bosses it deals with.
Can you tell I'm elated?
Also the NDU has an excellent website up for their Shelf Respect campaign for supermarket workers.
The Clean Start campaign, which I blogged about a few weeks back, is well worth catching up with too.
2 comments:
Fucking wicked! Go Union POWER!!!
Finally workers are seeing through the (neo) liberal Labour Party and are electing union leaders, such as Laila Harre and Jill Ovens, who are actually on their side.
Look at Dalziel, Goeche, Field, Fenton, Pillay, Moroney, Street, Barker. All ex unionists (mostly in the service workers union) who are now sitting in Parliament and are silent on the 75% of the population earning under $40,000 per year, the absolute greed of the 3% wollowing in 40% of the country's wealth, have been virtually silent on insideous youth rates, and think that a $10.25 minimum wage (to go to $12 by 2008 if "economic conditions permit") is okay.
Labour don't deserve to be supported by workers. I hope Ovens moves to dis-affiliate the SFWU from the middle class bourgeoise Labour Party. I understand that the Northern Region is two thirds of the SFWU union.
Apparently Ovens has had support from McCarten and Harre, and other lefties, in her recent campaign, which is good to see the "real" Left working together again.
Enjoy your blog Span :)
Being a 3%er (but earning less then $40,000) I'm always interested in how this redistribution of wealth will take place. Could someone please paint me a picture of how this will work initially and how you prevent the 3%ers from gaining back the 40% of the wealth to wallow in, in the future.
Bearing in mind that a large percentage (a much too large a percentage in my view) of New Zealands wealth is foreign owned.
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