September, 2005

"In the lead up to the General Election employers, politicians and unions all acknowledged that New Zealand's wages are too low," said Council of Trade Unions president, Ross Wilson. "Why then are employers now quibbling over workers demands for a 5% wage rise?"

"Now is the time, when we have good economic growth and relatively full employment, to make the investment in education and skill development, to work on improving workplace performance and organization, to improve workforce participation, and to create decent jobs," Ross Wilson told the PPTA Conference on 27th September 2005. His speech follows:

Voters seem to have chosen, by a narrow margin to continue to invest in a cooperative, constructive future that can take us to a high skill, high wage economy Ross Wilson told the NZEI Annual Meeting on 25 September. His speech follows:

"The CTU is proud to have led a successful union movement campaign in the most important Election in our generation" CTU president Ross Wilson said today.
"Union volunteer activists have been working for months to enrol workers and to inform them of the issues in this vital election." he said.

"There is no doubt that the high worker turnout in city seats, particularly South Auckland, has won the election for the centre-left."

"The CTU looks forward to continuing to work closely with a Clark led Government." Ross Wilson said.

"Our national interest as a small country requires us to continue to work together" he said.

"The National Party exploited prejudice and greed to divide New Zealanders during the campaign" he said "It is a huge relief that we can continue to build a strong and united country around the economic and social development strategies which have produced such excellent results over the past 6 years."

"Dr Brash has clearly signalled that a National Government would be divisive and elitist," CTU president Ross Wilson said today.Don Brash said last night that he does not regard Helen Clark, or anyone else who rejects National Party ideology, as a 'mainstream New Zealander'.

"It's obvious he intends to condemn more than half the country to 'outsider' status and that is a recipe for divisive Government and a bitter and divided country," Ross Wilson said.

"A hallmark of Helen Clark's government has been an inclusive approach to economic and social development and we have seen strong economic growth, low unemployment and increasing social cohesion as a result."

"Our national interest as a small country requires us to continue to work together," Ross Wilson said.

"Many of the National Party's policies, including industrial relations, are divisive," he said. "Dr Brash's arrogant and offensive comments last night signal that his style of Government would be divisive as well."

"More economists are acknowledging the risk of higher interest rates due to National's tax policy," said Peter Conway, CTU economist, today.Deutsche Bank chief economist, Ulf Schoefisch, said today that official interest rates could be cut from 6.75% to 5.5% from the middle of next year. But he also said that, 'Without the boost from National's tax cuts, rates could move slightly lower, perhaps to 5% under Labour's tax changes.'

"This 0.5% difference would cost householders an extra $15 a week on mortgage interest repayments," Peter Conway said.

Yesterday John Edwards of HSBC said that, 'It must be a considerable annoyance for Dr Bollard that the biggest tax cuts are promised by his predecessor, National Party Leader Don Brash, who has also expressed regret that the RBNZ inflation target is not as confining as it was when he was governor. Dr Brashs tax cuts combined with a more restrictive policy targets agreement would leave only one direction for New Zealand cash.'

"There are many downside risks to National's proposed tax cuts including higher mortgage payments, cuts in public services, and higher public debt," Peter Conway concluded.

Council of Trade Unions President Ross Wilson and Greens Party MP Sue Bradford will share a barbeque lunch with members of the Rail and Maritime Union between noon and 1pm today at the Alstom Hutt workshop in Moera.

"I don't expect the Reserve Bank Governor to get political tomorrow when the Official Cash Rate is announced," CTU Economist, Peter Conway, said today."I don't expect the Reserve Bank Governor to get political tomorrow when the Official Cash Rate is announced," CTU Economist, Peter Conway, said today.

"But the Reserve Bank knows that inflation pressures are rising. And although a higher oil price may eventually mean slower economic growth, and therefore take some pressure off interest rates, in the short term they add to inflation and could force interest rates up."

"We will have to guess what Mr Bollard is thinking about the possible added complication of a fiscal stimulus, such as big tax cuts starting early next year".

"I recently wrote a "Dear John" letter to John Key* setting out CTU concerns that the injection of a $2.2 billion tax cut in April next year could push interest rates higher than would the absence of such a stimulus."

"John Key should acknowledge that risk. Even if interest rates don't go up, they could stay high for longer or not reduce as much as they would without tax cuts."

"If interest rates end up 0.5% higher than otherwise as a result of tax cuts, then it would add over $15 a week to a $200,000 mortgage interest payment.

"There is a double standard here. When wages go up, some complain that this is inflationary. But when the stimulus to demand is from tax cuts, the National Party would have us believe that they pose no risk at all to interest rates."
*Contact Jan Farr for copy of Dear John letter.

"Business NZ has either been ignorant of the law for five years or is misrepresenting an Employment Court decision for election purposes," CTU president Ross Wilson said today.Business NZ has criticised an Employment Court decision which found the Christchurch City Council guilty of breaches of good faith, deliberately undermining and disrupting the bargaining process, and deliberately flouting a decision of the Employment Relations' Authority.

"This is a case where an employer who should know better has deliberately ignored the choice of its employees to bargain through their union, and has disrupted and undermined the bargaining process by insisting on bombarding them with communications." Ross Wilson said.

"The Act has been clear since 2000 and Business NZ is promoting bad faith and illegal employer behaviour by publicly criticising the Employment Court."

"As the Court emphasised in its judgment, if the employees want communications from their employer during and relating to the bargaining they can authorise it through a process agreement as occurred previously in this case."

"A National Government would take more than sick pay from working people," CTU president Ross Wilson said.Today, National Party finance spokesperson John Key announced that sick pay for workers would be reviewed if a National government is elected on Saturday.

"National has kept their workplace relations agenda beneath the radar throughout the election campaign," Ross Wilson said.

"But National has committed itself to returning the Employment Contracts Act, making it much easier to sack workers, abolish extra pay for work on public holidays, and put a fourth weeks annual leave up for sale."

"John Key says we need higher wages like Australia but wants to return to the very law that kept wages down throughout the 1990s," said Ross Wilson.

"And now they say they suggesting they might scrap sick leave?"

"The CTU warns workers not to give them the chance to do it!" he concluded.

"We are sickened by National's hypocrisy over petrol tax cuts," said CTU president, Ross Wilson. "John Key's crocodile tears for car-owners obscure his party's intention to shaft workers if they win on Saturday."

"National's industrial relations policy is all about reducing wages, holiday pay and workplace health and safety protections.

"If John Keys really cares, why does National vehemently oppose workers every time they try to get a fair wage deal. Why is his party so opposed to our Fair Pay campaign?" he asked.

"The only sustainable way to improve life for working people is to pay them higher wages."

"National's tax cuts are a smoke-screen for taking us back to the low-wage, cowboy days of Ruth Richardson," Ross Wilson concluded.

The CTU is challenging Don Brash to debate National's workplace relations agenda.

"Don Brash says he wants to focus on the issues this week, and workers' rights is an issue which should be debated," said CTU president Ross Wilson.

Peter Conway, CTU Economist, said today that the tax cuts proposed by the National Party could add $15 a week to the average mortgage repayment."One way or another they will affect inflation and interest rates," he said.

"Don Brash constantly refers to a number of bank economists who say that the proposed tax cuts will not force up interest rates," Peter Conway said.

"Although economists may disagree on whether the tax cuts will increase interest rates, most would accept that they will cause interest rates to stay up for longer and not to reduce as much as they would otherwise."

"When we last faced a situation of inflation heading to 3% or higher along with rising oil prices, Don Brash was Reserve Bank Governor and he warned against income increases, yet today he is taking a completely different approach (attachment B)."

'You can't pump $2.2 billion into the cash economy from April 2006 without having an inflationary effect," Peter Conway said. "Even if the proposed tax cuts do not force up interest rates, they could still have a damaging effect in two ways."

"One effect is to keep the official cash rate at 6.75% when it would otherwise drop. Another is to raise the 'bottom out' level of the cash rate with the next cycle of lowering interest rates."

"Using reasonable assumptions I have calculated (attachment A) the first effect on mortgage repayments at $8.09 a week for a short but indeterminate period, and the second as $15.28 a week on an ongoing basis."

"It is simply not credible to say that such large tax cuts will have no impact on inflation and interest rates. We know that inflation is likely to rise above 3% over the coming period due to other factors, such as the impact of higher petrol prices. The inflationary effect of National's tax cuts will only add to this."

Contact Jan Farr for attachments.

"Nationals education policy will cause major disruption in our schools and do nothing to improve students' learning," said Council of Trade Unions president, Ross Wilson."National talks about providing more choice in education but will impose bulk funding of teachers salaries on principals and parents who sit on school boards."

"Like most of National's policies, bulk funding has failed. It failed here in the 1990s. It also failed miserably in the UK under Margaret Thatcher, and was particularly damaging for schools in the poorest areas. it wasn't working so a Labour-led government scrapped it."

Bulk-funding gives a school one pot of money from which it has to pay its capital and running costs and its staff. The only way to cuts costs is to reduce salaries because other goods and services come at a fixed price.

"Bulk funded schools in the 1990s saved money by hiring inexperienced teachers, which harms rather than helps students' learning."

"Teachers are professional people, doing a fine job. Just as they are getting on top of problems with the NCEA National threatens to disrupt schools with policies like this," Ross Wilson concluded.

"There are fundamental differences between the clearly branded CTU election publications and the Exclusive Brethren leaflets with their false addresses and defamatory attacks on the Greens and Labour," said CTU president, Ross Wilson.

"Tell your workmates that workers have a legal right to time off work to vote after 3pm on Election Day, if they haven't already done so," CTU president, Ross Wilson told a meeting of union delegates in Whangarei today.

"The CTU is 100% behind the hospital cleaners locked out from Wellington, Kenepuru, Porirua and Paraparaumu hospitals by the multinational OCS Limited ? one of the largest ? and apparently most ruthless ? cleaning companies in the world," said CTU president, Ross Wilson, today.

"The CTU is 100% behind the hospital cleaners locked out from Wellington, Kenepuru, Porirua and Paraparaumu hospitals by the multinational OCS Limited ? one of the largest ? and apparently most ruthless ? cleaning companies in the world," said CTU president, Ross Wilson, today.

"John Key misleads the public when he says National will not cut one teaching or nursing job to pay for their grossly unfair tax cuts," said CTU president, Ross Wilson. "National obviously intend to operate a sinking lid in the state sector," he said. "A failure to increase spending in line with inflation and population growth and a refusal to replace workers when they leave amounts to real cuts."

"They will borrow and slash government spending and will certainly save further money by attacking wages and conditions in an approach to industrial relations policies that is a re-run of their 1990s onslaught on workers," said Ross Wilson.

"The tax cuts themselves are an inflationary gift to those on high incomes, giving $92 a week to those on $100,000 and $9.60 a week to those on $30,000.

"Workers will suffer further as rising interest rates push up the cost of their mortgages," Ross Wilson concluded.

"Raising the minimum wage would have both social and productivity benefits," said Council of Trade Unions president, Ross Wilson. "In Ireland they found that lifting the minimum wage was an important catalyst for improving skills and productivity, but it must be accompanied by a strategic investment in skills and training development.

"We congratulate the Greens on their comprehensive and eminently sensible Industrial Relations policy and we are pleased to see them launch it at a picket of poorly compensated rest-home workers who take on a huge social burden for little reward."

"If we are to advance on the road to being a highly productive, highly skilled economy then we need to value and reward the workers who participate in the process," Ross Wilson concluded.

"The PSA's election billboards that have gone up today, show the real cost to New Zealanders of National's promised tax cuts," said CTU president, Ross Wilson. "National's pledge to save money for its promised tax cuts by cutting public service jobs would put at risk services that people value.

"Any significant cuts to the public service would affect the number of nurses, prison officers, scientists, fisheries officers, social workers, building inspectors, broadcasters, occupational therapists, librarians and a host of others who perform services essential to the public."

"We congratulate the PSA on the launch of this attractive and informative billboard."

A secret Insurance Council memo confirms that the objective of National Party policy is to benefit Australian private insurance companies regardless of the effect on workers, said Council of Trade Unions president Ross Wilson today.

"Winston Peters has been sprung. The man who, only two days ago, portrayed himself as the workers' advocate has been linked to a secret deal with National to sell ACC to private insurance," said Ross Wilson, president of the NZ Council of Trade Unions.

"Our four billboards, erected today, have a cutting message for Auckland voters," said NZCTU secretary, Carol Beaumont. The message reads: National promises cuts for all workers ? job cuts, pay cuts, holiday cuts, health cuts, safety cuts.

"Most workers will get little more than the price of a packet of cigarettes in their weekly wage packet after the cuts. That won't even pay for the private health and ACC insurance they will need under a National Government."

"The billboards will stay up until the 16th September. They are a part of our election campaign to return a Labour, Progressive, Green government for the next three years."

"These parties have long-term policies which are good for working people. They are the only parties able to deliver the sort of high-skilled, high-waged economy that this country is capable of achieving."

Look out for the CTU billboards on the Ellerslie Panmure Highway, on Dominion Road, Mt Roskill, on Beach Road in the City and on Rosebank Road.