Local Labour backs Maritime Union
28 Auckland Council Local Board Members have called on Ports of Auckland to surrender to the demands of the Maritime Union, and rule out any contracting out as that will have few work-life balance protections.
I guess having to work more than 28 hours a week to have remuneration of $91,000 would upset the work-life balance.
The majority of the 28 board members are well known Labour activists. Useful of them to provide a hadny list of whom not to vote for.
Worth noting that the total number of local board members is 148, so 120 have not signed the Labour Party missive.
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Tags: Labour, Maritime Union, Ports of Auckland
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January 17th, 2012 at 10:37 am
Have they worked out what Cool Surfer Man Dave should say yet?
January 17th, 2012 at 10:55 am
hmm
Denise Roche, Waiheke
Would that indicate that Denise could be double dipping as a local board member, whilst now also having a MPs salary?,
January 17th, 2012 at 10:57 am
They seem worried about privatization but they have no fear of that. The port is not in good shape for sale.
January 17th, 2012 at 10:58 am
lol losers.
feel free to remind us of the 28 names next election
January 17th, 2012 at 11:02 am
Is this dangerously like the same percentage that Labour won in the Nov General Election -27% I think?
January 17th, 2012 at 11:20 am
Goodness; who would have seen that coming?
January 17th, 2012 at 12:02 pm
…surrender to the demands of the Maritime Union
Have they made some demands? What were they? The only demands I’ve seen so far have been from the employer.
I guess having to work more than 28 hours a week to have remuneration of $91,000 would upset the work-life balance.
Another whining righty indulging in the politics of envy! Perhaps they could be offered $160,000 for attending a few meetings, that must help the work-life balance no end.
January 17th, 2012 at 12:23 pm
Perhaps they could be offered $160,000 for attending a few meetings, that must help the work-life balance no end.
Are you suggesting someone who drives a straddle loader could understand how to run a multi-million business and if so, then why don’t they stop driving straddle loaders and go and get a job as a professional company director? That’s how it normally works PM, or do the normal rules not apply here?
January 17th, 2012 at 12:37 pm
“28 Auckland Council Local Board Members have called on Ports of Auckland to surrender to the demands of the Maritime Union…the majority of the 28 board members are well known Labour activists”
Did you interview your pc for that line, David?
It must be galling that 28 board members have quite a different opinion of the dispute to your own. Clearly the POA has had its own agenda throughout the dispute. The company wants to cut wages by up to 25% in real terms. But according to you, that’s ok.
I am bemused by your claim that wharfies get paid $91K….but then you also accepted the spurious claim that secondary school teachers’ average pay is $71K. That turned out to be false. Keep it up, you might soon earn the title of the most dishonest blogger in NZ.
[DPF: 28/120 board members have the Labour Party view. That is approx their level of support so no surprise.
And 20 demerits for the last sentence. You don't get to keep lying about me]
January 17th, 2012 at 12:42 pm
“Perhaps they could be offered $160,000 for attending a few meetings, that must help the work-life balance no end.”
Or maybe they could become an MP and get paid $142,000 and attend to parliamentary business when they feel like it.
January 17th, 2012 at 12:45 pm
Same old, same old….
Until the so called “political elite” stand back and look at the mirror and see the “world as it really is, and not as they wish it to be” nothing will change for Labour.
Left wing academics will always believe they know best. Apparatchiks will work only in their own self interest, And union “elected” (heh, that is a laugh) officials will continue to do what they have always done – work for their personal power and influence in Labour & Government.. Nothing will change. But 2012 is a different world. Labour et al must change, step into 2012, or die!
January 17th, 2012 at 12:52 pm
Are you suggesting someone who drives a straddle loader could understand how to run a multi-million business…
I’m suggesting that bitching about other people’s pay and conditions from a position of complete ignorance is obnoxious dumbassery of a pretty high order. But go right ahead, it’s a free country.
January 17th, 2012 at 12:54 pm
Good.
Certain elements within labour don’t seem to have figured out that no-one supports the Union, other than certain elements within labour.
This is another opportunity for them to learn… I wonder if they will?
January 17th, 2012 at 1:17 pm
I think that this from the Labour/Greenpeace Party is wonderful. It shows what pricks they are. They should continue to meddle on this POA stouch, from which they can only get hurt in the long run.
Keep it up please.
January 17th, 2012 at 1:29 pm
I will be sure to quote you in the next discussion of inequality and the accompanying suggestion of a universal salary cap.
You need to start reading the entire sentence, Milt.
“surrender to the demands of the Maritime Union, and rule out any contracting out
POAL wants to contract out, and the Union demands that they dont. What is it that POAL is demanding? Are they demanding the approval of the Union?
January 17th, 2012 at 1:34 pm
Funnily enough, CEO Tony Gibson doesn’t want to discuss his reported salary of $750,000. How odd, yet he is happy to discuss what wharfies are supposedly paid. I wonder if he gets paid when he is not at work.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10778865
January 17th, 2012 at 1:36 pm
From the above link:
“The union wants a 2.5 per cent rise on a basic annual wage of $57,000 and more job security.”
Hmmm so they get a wage of $57,000…probably not too dissimilar from what a secondary school gets paid on average. But still far too much according to the Right.
January 17th, 2012 at 1:37 pm
Except they are getting that as a starting wage.
Why should they earn that, when a teacher has to train for much much longer?
And if CEO Tony Gibson was striking, then his salary would be relevant.
January 17th, 2012 at 1:42 pm
Well, that’s an interesting definition. Somebody wants to change your working conditions, you’d rather they didn’t, and it’s you that’s making demands? Only if the word “demand” has some meaning yet obscure to native speakers of English.
January 17th, 2012 at 1:42 pm
Milt
ross
January 17th, 2012 at 1:50 pm
“Except they are getting that as a starting wage.”
Oh and here was I thinking that they got a starting wage of $91K….one can only imagine how much overtime a wharfie has to work to pull in that sum. The company’s spin doctor, Catherine Etheredge, has certainly fooled DPF and the Whale.
January 17th, 2012 at 1:55 pm
geez you’re dumb ross, and a liar.
January 17th, 2012 at 1:57 pm
Yeah RN, that’ll make ross shut up.
January 17th, 2012 at 2:09 pm
I don’t care if he shuts up or not really, he knows we know he’s full of shit. Sometimes I just like to vent.
January 17th, 2012 at 2:10 pm
ross says: “I am bemused by your claim that wharfies get paid $91K….but then you also accepted the spurious claim that secondary school teachers’ average pay is $71K. That turned out to be false. Keep it up, you might soon earn the title of the most dishonest blogger in NZ.”
Jeez ross – it has become patently obvious that you are nothing more than a trolling leftard who spouts shit. So I’ll correct a few of your lies:
1. The wharfie wage is not $57,000. The POAL themselves have confirmed that the average paid to wharfies in 2011 was $91,000. So stop talking crap.
2. The same with your lies about teachers salaries – your waffle has also been debunked. So stop trying to perpetuate the myth.
3. It doesn’t matter what Tony Gibson is paid – he is not on strike! In fact, he is the person who is leading the POA’s efforts to restore the previous shareholder value once enjoyed by his ratepayer owned asset. But Gibson needs to move quickly – before the militant planks at the Maritime Union destroy the POA equity further.
The sooner that these wharfie morons are made redundant and a workforce is employed that is prepared to work to a similar model to that on show at Tauranga etc, the better.
FIFY.
January 17th, 2012 at 2:22 pm
Simple mistake to make. All you had to do was miss the word “average” around 5 dozen times.
January 17th, 2012 at 2:30 pm
I’m suggesting that bitching about other people’s pay and conditions from a position of complete ignorance is obnoxious dumbassery of a pretty high order. But go right ahead, it’s a free country.
But its not ignorance PM – we know how much they get. We’ve been told by the POA itself through the information it released over Christmas. The fact you don’t like that information since its inconvenient to your own perspective on this issue doesn’t make it false. Also the fact it comes from one of the parties doesn’t make it unreliable either, since any lefty journo worth their
saltLabour Party subscription would have been busting a gut trying to poke holes in it and as far as I know, none have.January 17th, 2012 at 3:44 pm
No Ross, they’re not fooled. They are actually very clever at advancing their agenda.
It’s just the same sad old story, latch onto to carefully selected distortions and misleading data and and repeat it ad infinitum – I call it the Monckton Method, these days.
Averages are funny things – it only takes a few outliers (read, in this instance, very hardworking people) to skew the average.
But what I have yet to see is any criticism of past and present management who agreed to the very terms and conditions all the RWNJs here are going off about!
Oh, of course, managers are saintly do-gooders and their workers are greedy capitalists who use their power to line their own pockets.
I must write a book explaining it all now I’ve seen the light…
January 17th, 2012 at 3:44 pm
But its not ignorance PM…
This unwarranted faith in your omniscience is almost cute. Like I said, go right ahead – just be aware it’s obnoxious dumbassery.
January 17th, 2012 at 3:55 pm
If Tony Gibson succeeds in breaking the UNION ruining our port, I’d like to see him bumped up to 850.
Maybe chuck in a nice holiday or something too.
January 17th, 2012 at 3:56 pm
Milt
What’s the problem here? They are all off to bigger and brighter things in Australia.
January 17th, 2012 at 4:10 pm
“we know how much they get. We’ve been told by the POA itself through the information it released over Christmas.”
Wharfies apparently get a basic wage of about $57K. God knows how long they have to work to make $91K but I can see the facts don’t mean a lot to you. Why the Right is forever concerned/disturbed by what working class people get paid is one of life’s eternal mysteries. How’s that huge white collar fraud trial progressing?
January 17th, 2012 at 4:20 pm
“The wharfie wage is not $57,000.”
That indeed is what the wage is…if wharfies want to work shitloads of overtime, then they’ll get paid more. They’ll also get paid considerably more again if they become an MP. In fact, they can expect to get $142K.
“The same with your lies about teachers salaries – your waffle has also been debunked.”
That would be wishful thinking on your part. You’ve perpetuated the same lie for so long you think it’s truth. Try clicking the link.
http://www.educationreview.co.nz/pages/section/article.php?s=NZ+Teacher&idArticle=20141
“It doesn’t matter what Tony Gibson is paid – he is not on strike!”
I probably wouldn’t be either while counting my $750K at the beach. But why don’t we offer to cut his pay by up to 25% and alter his terms and conditions of work…I’m thinking he might want to strike over that. No?
January 17th, 2012 at 4:38 pm
What’s the problem here? They are all off to bigger and brighter things in Australia.
It’s funny, but when we had a Labour govt the problem of our workforce disappearing to Aus was a major pre-occupation of right-wingers. Now that we’ve got a National govt working hard to make our pay and conditions even more inferior to Aus, suddenly the disappearing workforce isn’t a problem.
January 17th, 2012 at 4:53 pm
Interesting Luc and Ross seems there isn’t a journalist in NZ who has been able to disprove the POA’s evidence of the wharfies earnings short of regurgitating the MU’s spin and heavens knows there are a truck load of them who support lefty causes. You are both well on your way to a PhD in clutching at straws. You and the wharfies and the 15% left in NZ who will side with them. And the PhD (Clutching at Straws) is preceded by an MA (Supporting Lost Causes) and a BA (Class Warfare Demagoguery).
January 17th, 2012 at 5:13 pm
ross “Hmmm so they get a wage of $57,000…probably not too dissimilar from what a secondary school gets paid on average.”
ross’ source: “The Minister of Education has claimed that the average wage for secondary teachers is about $71,000 and the ministry has advised that this figure was arrived at by dividing the total secondary teacher pay by the number of teachers. The PPTA points out that the ministry’s figures include additional payments for certain hard-to-staff schools and the salaries of principals who can earn $150,000-plus.”
definition of average: “The result obtained by adding several quantities together and then dividing this total by the number of quantities”
careers NZ: “Secondary school teachers with four years’ tertiary study start on $47,023 a year, but can earn more depending on additional qualifications and experience.
Pay increases each year for seven years according to a fixed scale, with the maximum pay $71,000 a year.”
http://www.careers.govt.nz/default.aspx?id0=60103&id1=j25440
ross’ source: “Teachers with four years training start on $45,000 and can progress over a period of years to $68,000, so for the ordinary secondary teacher an ‘average’ of $71,000 is not achievable.”
January 17th, 2012 at 5:17 pm
Forgot to mention
“Secondary school teachers may earn more than this if:
they take on management roles such as dean or head of department
they teach the shortage subjects of maths, physics, chemistry, home economics, te reo Māori, English, or physical education, where they receive an extra $3,500 a year for up to five years, paid in their third, fourth and fifth years of teaching
they teach in a school that is identified as one that is hard to staff, where they receive an extra $3,500 in their third, fourth and fifth years of teaching
they teach in a private or independent school, which sometimes pay an extra $2,000 to $3,000 a year.”
Also sourced from Careers NZ
January 17th, 2012 at 5:48 pm
Luc says: “I must write a book explaining it all now I’ve seen the light…”
A book by Luc. [gulp] Hope you’re not counting on any revenue to add to your retirement fund…
And then Luc adds: “…just the same sad old story, latch onto to carefully selected distortions and misleading data and and repeat it ad infinitum – I call it the Monckton Method, these days….”
Haha – Pot. Kettle. Black.
January 17th, 2012 at 5:50 pm
Milt
To look at the issue in a political context is missing the point.
The issue during Klerkula’s reign was the loss of skills and the importation of many unskilled people onto benefits at a time when the country in fact had a skills shortage (and still does in many areas).
The issue here is the threatened departure of a bunch of overpaid lard-arses who run a a discriminatory and sexist mafia-like closed shop in an industry that is a foundation stone for our economic growth and international competitiveness, at a time when we have high unemployment as a consequence of the GFC and house of cards economic policies of the corrupt, self-serving and morally bankrupt Klerk regime.
Consequently, the departure for foreign climes of these deadshits is actually a win/win all the way round.
In reality, the POA CEO ought to get a something extra in his pay packet when he’s seen these pricks out of the country. A little mention in Betty’s birthday honours wouldn’t be out of order either. Don’t you agree?
January 17th, 2012 at 5:54 pm
Maybe as much as 40 hours?
If they didnt strike, no one would be any the wiser.
January 17th, 2012 at 5:57 pm
Psycho Milt said
I didn’t realise that you were a graduate of the Penny Bright School of Economics Milt; the $160k figure was thoroughly discredited last week.
January 17th, 2012 at 7:47 pm
This is not about a pay rise. The port is not running at a loss. They have made millions in net profit but greed demands more profit, more profit, more profit!
But then that’s how the capitalist system works, and how we are judged according to the amount of money made not the amount of effort made by the actual people doing the work. But those planning the work get the biggest cut of the profit.
January 17th, 2012 at 8:21 pm
@Luc,
Off topic, but very good to see you too debunking The Spirit Level in public.
January 17th, 2012 at 10:05 pm
Don’t you agree?
Well, for a moment there I was tempted to agree that the nation’s company directors and CEO’s are “overpaid lard-arses who run a a discriminatory and sexist mafia-like closed shop,” but I suspect that’s not whom you meant…
the $160k figure was thoroughly discredited last week.
That’s very significant. Or it would be, if it was relevant. The point of the comment was that your personal opinion on whether some group of strangers “deserves” the pay they receive is about as relevant to the dispute as your opinion on whether Ford or Holden “deserves” to win Bathurst. Quibbling about who actually gets paid what is totally, completely, 100% irrelevant. DPF, Whaleoil and Cactus Kate know their thicker readers will leap on this stuff, which is why they peddle it – the more interesting question is, why are you happy to play the role of “thicker reader?”
January 17th, 2012 at 10:18 pm
“Just Thinking” : (If only)…. This is not about a pay rise. The port is not running at a loss. They have made millions in net profit but greed demands more profit, more profit, more profit!
But then that’s how the capitalist system works, and how we are judged according to the amount of money made not the amount of effort made by the actual people doing the work. But those planning the work get the biggest cut of the profit.
…ahhhh in a Capitalist system ports aren’t owed by councils or are held to ransom by greedy politically backed wharfie’s who think they are immune from and above the law of supply and demand. Also the ones who actually have the ability to run the operation get paid more because they are worth more than the ones who need work providing for them and who aren’t capable of running things. Lets see the average wharfie step up and run the whole op….if he has the ability he can rise to do so….come on
January 18th, 2012 at 9:15 am
Milt
Ford definitely deserve to win Bathurst ‘cos they do all those eco-friendly “Eco” motors. They’ve now developed a 3 cylinder 900cc turbo that is very Eco and are saving far more of the planet than GM.
January 18th, 2012 at 12:46 pm
“The Scorned” I do agree with you on the fact that those ” planning and overseeing” should be paid on a higher scale that others driving and lifting.
But how much profit do you make before you say we are doing alright. It sounds like the company is running at a Loss and that changes Must be made to save the company. BUT They are not struggling because they do make millions in after tax PROFIT, so why the need for the proposed urgent changes required.
MORE PROFIT, MORE PROFIT, MORE PROFIT. Thats all this is about.
January 18th, 2012 at 1:01 pm
The question is, can the resources be put to better use anywhere else? If the Port makes $100 on a $1,000,000,000 investment then that is a massive waste of resources and I am sure you wouldnt defend it.
If the Port doesnt make enough to cover its cost of capital, that capital is being wasted.