This is a quick update of some of the material that's been added to the
website of the Aotearoa Workers Solidarity Movement over the last little
while.

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First is a leaflet that AWSM members distributed at a number of the
nationwide protests against the Government's attempt to introduce a public
sector wage freeze. The text of the leaflet, entitled Let’s Melt The Wage
Freeze, can be read at http://awsm.org.nz/?p=169

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Next is a video of a talk by veteran anarchist Barry Pateman on class,
community and anarchism. Barry, originally from the UK but now based in the
USA, is one of the editors of the Emma Goldman Papers project and a curator
of the Kate Sharpley Library (one of the largest anarchist libraries in the
world). He is also editor of the book Chomsky on Anarchism, published by AK
Press.

The talk was organised by the Wellington Region branch of the Aotearoa
Workers Solidarity Movement, and took place on Sunday May 24th, 2009 at the
128 Radical Community Centre in Wellington, New Zealand.

It is a total of 43 minutes, split into 5 parts on YouTube. They can be
viewed from http://awsm.org.nz/?p=172

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Lastly are two articles posted on the website yesterday. We will now
regularly be posting news and analysis on the website, so keep an eye out
for more!

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Taranaki’s council and DHB bosses earn over $300,000

The Taranaki Daily News has reported over the last couple of days on
horrendous top-end salaries of Regional Council and District Health Board
(DHB) CEOs. Taranaki District Health Board chief executive Tony Foulkes
earns more than $350,000 while Regional Council CEO Basil Chamberlain earns
$310,000 per year.

Health Board chairman John Young is quoted in relation to the horrendous
salaries that “we need to have good quality staff and remuneration is
something that has to be taken into account.” This is the core belief of
this rotten economic system called capitalism and there is no difference if
it is managers of multinational corporations, financial institutions or the
local council. The idea that the person who manages a District Health Board
gets paid more than 10 times the wage of the person who cleans his toilet,
flips his burgers or delivers his mail is simply revolting!

The DHB paid 103 staff more than $100,000. 15 of those were managers with
four earning over $300,000 while the remaining 88 are clinicians.

Service and Food Workers Union spokesperson Alistair Duncan is questioning
the number of staff on more than $100,000. “If the administration don’t
turn up to work, the organisation functions without them. If the nurses
don’t turn up to treat the patients or the cleaners don’t turn up to
clean, you’ve got a serious health and safety issue.” He said that many
kitchen and cleaning staff at the Taranaki Base Hospital earn little more
than $14 an hour and were fighting for a 3% pay increase.

We need to understand this exploitative system where the few on top live in
luxury while the rest of us struggle to get by. Understanding, challenging
and - to be quite frank - overthrowing it.

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Workers’ right royal protest

On 18 January, about 100 Ministry of Justice (MOJ) workers and supporters
held a rowdy protest outside the opening of brand new shiny Supreme court
building in Wellington. The building was opened by Prince William of
England. It was very strange to see the adoring crowd of over 1000 who
gathered to glimpse a gawk at royalty, and the cabal of photographers that
followed the aristocratic relic around. According to the media, workers
showed respect to William by quietening down their protest when he arrived.
This was not the case. As he arrived, protesters made more noise.

Hundreds of MOJ workers have been taking industrial action since October
last year. This has included a series of short, surprise strikes and an
on-going work to rule to slow down the justice system. Workers are seeking
greater pay, because they are paid considerably less than the rest of the
public sector, and subject to a performance pay system which keeps wages
down. The government is trying to enforce a wage freeze on the public
sector, and has refused to negotiate on the issue of pay.

At the same time, the government is spending millions on building new
prisons to put away working class people. The new supreme court building
alone cost $80 million. Their agenda in keeping wages frozen is to pass the
cost of the recession onto working class people.

An encouraging sign of the strikes has been workers taking semi-wildcat
action over and above the action voted on at stopworks. For example, on the
day of the protest, court workers walked off the job in Wellington,
Christchurch, Auckland, Te Awamutu, Thames, Huntly, Tokoroa, Hamilton,
Tauranga, Nelson, Whakatane, and Rotorua. Another encouraging sign has been
the willingness of the Public Services Association, a notorious class
collaborationist union famous for its partnership for quality with bosses,
actually take action.

There have been a few discouraging aspects of the strikes. The PSA has been
very cautious approach towards taking action (such as only allowing workers
to vote at stopworks on taking a few hours strike action every fortnight,
rather than walking off for a whole day). Also, the action of NUPE
(National Union of Public Employees) MOJ members in accepting a shitty deal
which PSA members have already rejected has undermined the struggle.

There will be a series of stopworks in early February to decide on further
action.

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In solidarity,
Aotearoa Workers Solidarity Movement

http://www.awsm.org.nz // info@awsm.org.nz

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