From today, everyone is required towork against the Employment Relations Act

The Labour-Alliance government's new Employment Relations Act (ERA) came into being on October 1. It is being portrayed in some sections of the media as some sort of victory for workers after bosses having it their own way under nearly a decade of sordid union and worker bashing under the old Employment Contracts Act (ECA).

The media is basically reflecting the fear of bosses who are shit scared of workers getting uppity about their decreasing pay packets, crap working conditions, the ever increasing danger of industrial accidents as bosses cut corners to make more profits, and draconian anti-union laws that even Stalin would be proud of over the last 15 years.

BRAVE NEW ERA?

The brave new ERA ain't much different than the old ECA. The ERA retains all but one of the ECA's restrictions of workers right to strike (illegal strikes include political strikes, strikes over job losses, sexual harassment, damage to the environment, and solidarity strikes; I think only strikes over health and safety issues are legal); it adds a new 40 day strike free period at the beginning of contract negotiations (because of this new clause even the conservative, bureaucratic Council of Trade Unions describes the ERA as actually "more restrictive on industrial action than the ECA") and increases penalties for illegal strikes, raising the maximum fine from $10,000 to $40,000.

As well, the ERA introduces new "industrial mediators" (read: special government bureaucrats to suppress and control uppity wage-slaves) in industrial disputes.
However, in some respects the ERA is better than the old ECA because it allows union organisers access to job sites, puts restrictions on the employment of scabs during a strike or lockout, gives union delegates leave for attending union meetings, and encourages workers to join the collective union negotiated contract.

This means union numbers will finally be able to grow again after reaching historical lows under the ECA. Some seem to believe that the new ERA will magically revitalise a genuine grassroots workers movement which may eventually knock off the assorted vermin, vampires and scum that make up the boss class who live as parasites off our sweat & blood, but as noted above the ERA brings in the harshest anti-strike laws anywhere in the Western world, anti-strike laws which are pretty much the same as China!

It is hard to see radical unions develop if they are not allowed to strike. Perhaps the first thing that workers ought to do collectively themselves to snub the ERA is to go out on strike - regardless of union blessing - to demand the right to strike.

"CARING" CAPITALISM

In all, the ERA is a bit of a con from a government that pretends to be leftist whilst it acts in league with the boss class. The Labour-Alliance government promotes the image that is different from the harsh bash the poor policies of the New Right, whilst in reality basically promoting those very same policies, save a few cosmetic changes.

Perhaps their policies can be seen as the parliamentary equivalent of the new ideology of "caring capitalism" promoted by the tycoons of the "Businesses for Social Responsibility" such as Stephen Tindall of the Warehouse. With the Warehouse, the image promoted is that of a benevolent company that cares for its workers; the reality, Warehouse workers get shit working conditions (which causes high turnover of staff) and are then offered the comfort of a yellow company union, whilst Tindall rakes in profits that have made him the second equal richest person in Aotearoa (he was worth a filthy $310 million in 1999). - Fydd