We watched with a mixture of horror and anger last night as UNITE Christchurch organiser took TV cameras with him as he walked the streets looking for "unscrupulous employers" who might be going to short-change union members in their employ. And this morning, The Press notes that he is demanding hand-outs from the Government:
Unite Christchurch organiser Matt Jones said his office had been "flooded" with phone calls from worried Christchurch workers.
He was concerned some employers would try to withhold pay for work that employees were rostered to do last weekend.
Jones said Key should provide "instant cash relief" to Christchurch workers who had lost their jobs because of the quake.
"If New Zealand's large corporations and employers cut adrift the workers of Christchurch, then the city will face a social disaster on top of this natural disaster," he said.
Leaving apart the grubby opportunism that Jones is displaying, he ignores a crucial point; employers who have no income coming in will struggle to meet their ongoing obligations; rent, insurance, stock and wages. Employers are going to struggle just as much as employees over the next few months, and many will go to the wall.
Fortunately, the CTU is not being as militant as UNITE - read on:
Council of Trade Unions president Helen Kelly said unions would work with the Government and businesses to address the problem.
Now that's the approach that Matt Jones from UNITE should be adopting; a collaborative approach, not a blinkered, ideological "workers good; bosses bad" approach such as he has displayed to date.
So here's our message to UNITE; get on the phone to Comrade Jones, and tell him to pull his head in. It was barely 50 hours after the Christchurch earthquake when Jones was pulling his cynical media stunt. Picketing burger joints is one thing; this is, in our humble opinion, a new low for the trade union movement.
2 comments:
PM of NZ has a post along similar lines about a group of workers, happy to continue, packed it in and went home after a visit from a union mischief maker.
Another glaring example of the other world where the more dogmatic, simple and destructive socialists dwell.
Economic Terrorists.
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