THE UNIONIST: Plays of the Week, Wage Drive, Hollow Men

In The Unionist this week: look out for the Fairness At Work Plays of the Week from this Monday, Work Rights Wage Drive underway, and the Hollow Men film coming soon to a town near you. 

Join the Fairness At Work campaign

We're now three months out from the election, and this Monday sees the start of a new election update to sit alongside this newsletter, The Unionist.

'Plays of the Week' is a short heads up from the Council of Trade Unions Fairness At Work campaign.  Tips, tools and news to help you start worksite conversations each week about the real stories this election.

Plays of the Week will have a couple of short bites of information, and details of any union election events happening in your area. 

Subscribe today.  Visit this page to enter your email address. We’d encourage you to forward 'Plays of the Week' to workmates, family and friends that may be interested, and better still let them know they can sign up for it from the CTU website.

Work rights Wage Drive underway - checklist launched

The Council of Trade Unions joined the Engineering, Printing & Manufacturing Union's Work Rights Wage Drive in Christchurch today, as unions ramp up their election year activism.

“With many feeling the pinch through increased living costs, workers want concrete answers from political parties on how they will lift wages, protect their rights at work and keep our public services strong and affordable,” CTU president Helen Kelly said.

“It's our jobs that feed and house us and our families, and it's our work rights that help keep those jobs secure and ensure we are properly rewarded for doing them. 

"And with workers’ income dependent so much on their wages, tax cuts can have a short-term benefit but don’t address the long term issues we face.  We need to see detailed plans from all political parties on what they will do to shift New Zealand to a high wage, high skill, high productivity economy.”

1,500 workers were at today's rally in Christchurch, which also saw the launch of the EPMU's Work Rights Checklist.

EPMU national secretary Andrew Little says the Wage Drive and the Checklist are about making sure working New Zealanders understand how important their work rights are.

“Work Rights are some of the most important rights we have because they provide the legal foundation all Kiwi workers need to secure fair wages and a decent way of life for themselves and their families."

"We’re calling on all political parties to recognise this fact and to guarantee they will maintain and strengthen current work rights to ensure New Zealand workers can keep up with the rising cost of living and start getting ahead together."

The Work Rights Wage Drive is one of a number of activities unions are doing this election year, individually and through the CTU.  Next week's Wage Drive rallies are in Invercargill, Dunedin, Oamaru, Timaru, Greymouth, Westport, Nelson, Blenheim, and then in the lower North Island the week following.  The full schedule is here.

Click here for the CTU's election page.

Hollow Men Film in a town near you 

The Work Rights Wage Drive is not the only thing coming soon to a town near you. 

Filmmaker Alister Barry has turned Nicky Hager's book "The Hollow Men" into a film, and it is screening as part of this year's NZ International Film Festival in 18 regions in New Zealand. 

Film times are available here on the Hollow Men website. 

Hager's book, published in 2006, was based on a series of leaked emails and documented the dynamics inside the National Party's leadership change and 2005 election campaign.  Then National leader Don Brash resigned shortly after the book was published. Scoop media said at the time that the book was the most engaging of Hager's books to date, showing "the dark and sometimes ugly-side of politics...the Hollow Men exposes the undergarments of political strategy setting, implementation and election campaigning."

Last year the CTU hosted two successful forums on transparency in election funding; borrowing from the book's name, they were titled: The Hollow Men: Our Democracy or Theirs?   The Wellington meeting attracted 250 people, and a podcast of that event and other items and links are on this website: http://union.org.nz/electionfunding

Audio/video: Click here to listen to film maker Alister Barry on KiwiFM last week.  Visit this page for other reviews.

Weekly Events Calendar