Category: Communications

E tū members at Blue Star Group’s four print shops are on a 24-hour strike today, which began at 12:01am this morning.

The workers are taking industrial action after months of very little progress in their employment agreement negotiations. Their agreement expired last year.

Blue Star won’t budge on several unreasonable demands, such as wanting the ability to change shifts without the agreement of affected workers.

Communications Industry Coordinator Joe Gallagher says that’s not good enough.

“Job security and the ability to plan your life around work are key conditions that Blue Star workers both need and deserve,” Joe says.

“There are challenges facing the print sector here and internationally, but that’s no excuse to force workers to accept precarious conditions. So they won’t – and that’s why they are on strike today.

“Employment relationships are a two-way street. Workers wanting continued certainty around their ability to reject shift changes that interfere with their lives is completely reasonable.”

The company is also demanding that workers declare any secondary employment they have, which Joe says is a breach of their right to privacy.

“If a worker needs to pick up a few shifts somewhere else to make ends meet, how is that any of Blue Star’s business? What workers do on their own time shouldn’t factor here.

“Blue Star’s demands clearly demonstrate that their attitude towards their workforce is pretty grim. The company wants all the flexibility and information at their end, without giving a stuff about the workers and their right to organise their own lives.

“Today’s strike action is an escalation after months of failed negotiations, and we are sending a clear message: Come back to the table with reasonable demands, because we won’t stand down.”

ENDS

For more info and comment:
Joe Gallagher, 027 591 0015

A report released today by the Labour Inspectorate at Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) has confirmed how bad the UFB fibre roll-out has been for workers employed by Chorus sub-contractors.

An MBIE investigation into the industry found that 73 of the 75 Auckland-based sub-contractors investigated had breached minimum employment standards. Breaches included employers failing to maintain employment records, pay employees’ minimum wage, pay holiday entitlements, and provide employment agreements.

E tū Communications Industry Coordinator Joe Gallagher says this is alarming, but not surprising.

“We have known about the effect of this contracting model since they started it,” says Joe.

“This model of contracting and sub-contracting has allowed Chorus to pass the buck, resulting in contractors exploiting their workforce to keep to budgets and schedules.

“It has resulted in terrible outcomes for the affected workers, as well as poor delivery of services in many areas.”

Joe says that Chorus need to shoulder the responsibility.

“Chorus have kept their heads in the sand on this for far too long. They have tried to discredit our union and our members when issues have been raised. They have insisted in the past that issues we have raised were isolated events.

“We now have crystal-clear evidence that the systemic exploitation of vulnerable workers is ‘business as usual’ for Chorus and the whole fibre roll-out operation.”

Joe says that political leadership on this issue is needed now more than ever.

“This fiasco is the result of terrible mismanagement from the last National Government. You might say that the model they oversaw seemed like it was designed for these inevitable results.

“Let’s be honest – if E tū hadn’t urged the Labour Inspectorate to investigate, with support from the current Government, this exploitation may have continued unfettered.

“The Government now has to move as quickly as possible to fix this any many other problems with the UFB roll-out. We are optimistic that this Government understands the issues and wants to fix them, but time is of the essence.”

ENDS

For more info and comment:
Joe Gallagher, 027 591 0015

JOINT STATEMENT

Māori Television and E tū have reached a settlement that reflects the expectations of both parties.

Māori Television looks forward to working alongside the E tū union in responding to future challenges and opportunities.

ENDS

For more info and comment:

E tū, Joe Gallagher (027) 5910015

Māori Television, Rick Osborne (021) 889 054

E tū stands alongside TVNZ Pacific correspondent Barbara Dreaver who was detained by police in Nauru earlier this week.

Barbara also had her credentials to cover the Pacific Islands Forum revoked. She was released after a few hours and then had her credentials restored.

Her crime? Doing her job as a journalist. Barbara, a longstanding member of our union, has also long been a committed and dedicated journalist bringing the stories of the Pacific to TVNZ’s audiences. She has reported on the region without fear or favour and brought her expertise, understanding and perspective to her reportage.

She was doing the same in Nauru when she was picked up by police for speaking to a refugee held in Australia’s offshore detention centre.

This is a story of huge public interest to audiences across the world and Barbara did not shy away from tackling it even though it has always been clear authorities in both Nauru and Australia are not keen on a light being shone on the issue.

While Barbara was detained by Nauru police, Australia too must take some responsibility for this attack on press freedom.

Barbara’s mistreatment is a timely reminder that within our close neighbourhood press freedoms we might take for granted in New Zealand are not so easily upheld elsewhere.

We stand in solidarity with journalists throughout the region who struggle to report the stories of the Pacific without the fear of facing authoritarian responses to their reportage.

We also welcome comments from New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Winston Peters and National’s foreign affairs spokesman Todd McClay denouncing Nauru’s action and expressing how important freedom of the press is to democracy.

E tū members at Maori TV are on strike as of 6am this morning for 24 hours.

The members will be picketing this morning outside Maori TV’s South Auckland studios from 10 am.

The strike follows the failure of the company to settle members’ Collective Agreement, after talks last Thursday collapsed.

“We were really close on the money offered and we were very close on addressing the humiliation our members feel in the wake of the favourable treatment by Maori TV of its non-union members,” says Joe Gallagher, E tū Industry Coordinator.

“Maori TV promotes itself on values and treating people with dignity. But the company’s lack of respect for our members is what this dispute is all about,” says Joe.

ENDS

What: Maori TV picket

Where: 433 East Tāmaki Road, East Tāmaki, Auckland

When: 10am 8 August

For further information, contact;

Joe Gallagher E tū Industry Coordinator ph. 027 591 0015

Union members at Maori TV will walk off the job for 24 hours on August 8 in protest over the TV channel’s unfair and discriminatory treatment.

E tū Industry Coordinator, Joe Gallagher says the action follows months of delays by MTV in addressing members’ pay claims, with the company telling the union in October that it had no money.

“We were told they were waiting for the board to provide guidance on a new financial management plan and they’d come back with an answer in a couple of week.

“We were supposed to reconvene for talks in November, but we heard nothing by Christmas.

“then we were informed by our members that Maori TV had through performance appraisals had paid non-union staff a bonus before Xmas and a wage adjustment in Jan this year.

We think they’ve undermined the bargaining process by telling us they have no money while giving bonuses and a pay rise to non-union workers.”

And so, our members feel they’ve been discriminated against for being, and belonging to E tū.

Joe says Maori TV has not acted in good faith.

“That despite their claiming to be a values-based organisation, but they don’t seem to live those values, despite the union working to build a good relationship.”

“The direction and behaviour of the management at MTV is seriously lacking for a company and organisation which promotes the values of tikanga.

ENDS

For more information, contact:

Joe Gallagher, E tū Industry Coordinator ph. 027 591 0015

Workers at Blue Star Group’s four print shops are taking industrial action, with an overtime ban in place from just after midnight tonight.

The overtime ban will affect McCollams Print and Nicholson Print in Auckland as well as Format Print and Print Link in Wellington, which prints the Budget.

E tū Industry Coordinator, Joe Gallagher says the industrial action is a response to Blue Star’s unreasonable demands during bargaining to renew the collective agreement, which expired last year.

“The company wants to claw back terms and conditions related to shift arrangements,” says Joe.

“At the moment, they can change shifts if workers agree. But Blue Star wants to be able to do this as of right. They’ve told us if workers don’t agree to this they can apply for voluntary redundancy. In other words, take it or leave it, which is unacceptable,”.

“This would leave these workers with no control over their lives, their time with their kids and families and what they do on the weekend.”

Joe says members want to preserve their right to consultation “because they’ve built their lives around their working arrangements.”

Member are also unhappy over Blue Star’s demand that workers disclose if they have a secondary job.

“I asked what business that is of theirs and they cited health and safety. But what they really want is the right to reach into other people’s lives.

“Instead of addressing issues of fair pay, they’re trying to dictate what workers do outside their working hours at Blue Star.”

Joe says the fact is many workers must work two jobs because of the high cost of living, especially in cities like Auckland and Wellington.

“We’re seeing growing evidence of the haves and have-nots. People are trying to survive and it’s getting tougher and tougher. And companies are responding by trying to claw back more and more from their workers,” he says.

Joe says members are also angry over Blue Star’s refusal to agree to back-pay any pay rise to the expiry date of their collective agreement.

ENDS

For more information, contact:

Joe Gallagher, E tū Industry Coordinator, ph. 027 591 0015

E tū is issuing a plea for people to stop making false complaints about power outages, as lines crews work around the clock to reconnect Aucklanders after last week’s massive storm.

The common feedback from our members is that this is the most extensive damage they have seen resulting from large trees being ripped out of the ground and over the lines.

The power remains out in parts of West Auckland, with isolated outages in some suburbs.

E tū Industry Coordinator, Joe Gallagher says Vector and their contractors, Northpower and Electrix have brought in significant extra staff from outside of the Auckland region and crews are working long hours to get the power back on.

“We’d congratulate our many members working on this. They’ve been working basically non- stop since last Tuesday,” says Joe.

“In some cases, guys have had to be stood down because they’ve reached their fatigue hours – they’re working about 70 hours a week.”

Joe says the public is largely supportive of the crews and while most call-outs are genuine, some are not and that has put pressure on everyone working to reconnect Aucklanders.

“Some people ring up, saying, “Our power’s out,” only to find that the main switch was left off at the meter board as a safety precaution by private electricians.  So, the crews turn up, and there’s no problem.  But every time that happens, they can’t respond to someone else who needs their help.

“I would appeal to these people – do some basic checks first. You wouldn’t call an ambulance if it’s not an emergency, so consider if you really need help,” says Joe.

Joe says the safety of the crews on the ground is absolutely paramount for all concerned.

ENDS

For more information, contact;

Joe Gallagher E tū Industry Coordinator ph. 027 591 0015

E tū says more workers are coming forward to report labour abuses to the Labour Inspectorate lead investigation into Chorus contractors and subcontractors working on the ultrafast broadband network.

The investigation began just before Christmas, following reports of exploitative practices by Chorus subcontractors in Nelson where people worked for free, as so-called volunteers.

E tū’s Industry Coordinator Communications, Joe Gallagher says the union is working closely with the Labour Inspectorate, and a number of workers have been interviewed.

“We’ve been very encouraged by the number of people coming forward. We are working with them, ensuring they have contact with the Inspectorate to get this information into the investigation,” says Joe.

He cites reports from workers, including many migrants, which reveal a litany of illegal work practices.

They include illegal pay deductions, underpayment of wages or no payment for so-called ‘volunteers’, as well as health and safety breaches, no annual leave and sick leave, and inadequate equipment.

For many, the work is a way to meet immigration requirements for work permits and residency, but Joe says that’s left people vulnerable to exploitation.

“We saw the early cases come through in Nelson, but in Auckland alone there are 900 subcontractors to Chorus contractors, Visionstream and UCG. The potential scale of the problem is huge,” he says.

ENDS

For more information, contact:

Joe Gallagher E tū Industry Coordinator, Communications ph. 027 591 0015