Kia ora -- 

All year, workers in the Talleys owned AFFCO meat plants have been in a struggle with their employer.  Their union, the MWU, tried to settle an agreement to replace the 2012 collective agreement which came after an 84-day lockout.

But in June, AFFCO Talleys began forcing their workers to give up their union pay and conditions by making it clear that not signing a new contract meant no job. Around the same time, Talleys lost two Employment Authority cases in other meat plants, where the health & safety of workers caused harm to workers. And Worksafe decided to prosecute Talley's for a worker who was impaled on a meat hook at their North Island plant in Rangiuru.  

Wednesday, 23 December 2015, 1:54 pm
Press Release: Meat Workers Union

Coming on top of a year of turbulence in AFFCO Talleys meat plants, two union delegates have been sacked right on Xmas because they went into work early to talk to union members, says the NZ Meat Workers Union.

By Alastair Reith, McDonald's Unite delegate, Dunedin

Today we beat the heat at McDonald's. I thought I might share the story, in case anyone else out there is sweating and sweltering and wants to hear about a wee victory that I think shows what a bit of union action can achieve.

As part of the ongoing breakdown in relationships between Talley’s AFFCO and their staff, yesterday they stood down five staff for wearing a campaign t-shirt which Talley’s AFFCO has said resembles gang insignia.

The online publication of the New Zealand Labour Letter is provided as a service to Labour by AIL of New Zealand Ltd. 

December 2015, Vol. 6 No. 12

National Labour New

The Maritime Union urged Indonesia to crack down on abuse of its migrant fishery workers on boats owned by Korean and Taiwanese companies. Spokesman Victor Billot said the Indonesian government should clamp down on rogue recruitment agencies which he said were selling workers into slavery. "Unless there is some action on the other end of it, with Indonesia and all these [other] trading partners, we're still going to see those problems. We're still going to see people treated as sub-human,” he said. The Indonesian government recently reported that up to 61,000 Indonesians have been treated as “slaves” on foreign fishing vessels operating in New Zealand waters. A new law, supported by the Maritime Union, goes into effect in May 2016 which requires foreign-owned boats to be registered in New Zealand and comply with local labour laws. Billot also said the New Zealand government needs to put more resources into inspections and enforcement when the vessels came into port. "Really, we should be looking at 'New Zealandising' the fishing industry and ensuring that New Zealand workers — not just New Zealand flagged vessels — have got a chance to work in that industry on New Zealand rates of pay and conditions,” he said.

The online publication of the New Zealand Labour Letter is provided as a service to Labour by AIL of New Zealand Ltd. 

Unite union condemns the exclusion of ‘just transition’ measures in the Draft Paris Outcome and stands with world’s most vulnerable and against the corrupted COP process. 

Unite union climate justice spokesperson Gary Cranston joined a sit-in of disaffected civil society representatives at COP21 in Paris today following the release of the draft negotiation document. “In the last few days of the negotiations, unions and climate impacted allies have been working hard to ensure Governments agree to include wording in the climate agreement that will support a just transition away from fossil fuels that will protect those most vulnerable”, said Unite Union’s representative in Paris, Gary Cranston.

 We have had some reports of members being asked to change their "desired hours" and availability on Serveme recently.

Our advice is simple: do not make any changes unless you want to.

Reducing your availability or "desired hours" is likely to reduce your paid and Guaranteed Minimum Hours (GMH) as follows:

By Gary Cranston, Unite organiser and participant in the COP21 climate summit in Paris

(More reports by Gary and others can be found at the Climate Justice Aoteraroa website)

We’re halfway through COP21 now and on Saturday morning, the People’s Climate Summit got underway in Montreuil, a lively working-class town just outside the East of Paris.

Hundreds of stalls, events, workshops, gigs, talks of all sorts are happening in the town. The Global Village of Alternatives is in the main square and surrounds showcasing “concrete alternative solutions, both local and international, for climate and social justice”, and most importantly, people from some of the most inspiring movements and organisations that are winning the fight for climate justice are holding political talks, panel debates and discussions and workshops, including civil disobedience workshops to prepare people for the actions in the streets of Paris next Saturday when the negotiations inevitably fail. This is the real stuff.

International Trade Union Confederation discussion on Organising for a Just Transition

  
Gary Cranston and Edward Miller meet with Jonathan Neale of the One Million Climate Jobs Campaign

By Unite Organiser, Gary Cranston.

On Friday, I had the pleasure to meet Jonathan Neala of the One Million Climate Jobs Campaign. Always great to meet an old Facebook friend in the flesh, and a great campaigner for climate justice.

By Unite Organiser Gary Cranston

Well, I made it to Paris, and after finding and settling into the place I’m staying in the 5th arrondissement, I headed out for my first mission to le Bourget, the giant aircraft hangar where the official conference has been ongoing since Monday. This is the 21st meeting of governments since these climate talkfests began.

I hadn’t seen much of the state of emergency until I got to Le Bourget train station, where conference attendees take busses to the conference centre. Hundreds of police officers were walking around the place, many armed with machine guns.

Pine trees opposite the conference centre. New Zealand’s primary way of cheating the system, using carbon offsets to hide its actual emissions.