A smart unionist
July 28th, 2007 at 11:43 am by David Farrar“EPMU national secretary Mr Little saw encouraging business investment and raising productivity as essential.”
- NZ Herald 28 July 2007
I just can’t imagine Jim Knox ever saying something like that.
No tag for this post.
July 28th, 2007 at 11:53 am
“Mr Little saw encouraging business investment and raising productivity as essential.”
Who told him to say that ?
Vote:July 28th, 2007 at 12:06 pm
You raise productivity through investment either in people or equipment and WORKING harder and smarter. Trades Hall opposes most of this especially working harder. Marginal tax rates are a key component to tpovide an incentive for people to lift their game and get better paid. WFF works against this.
Vote:July 28th, 2007 at 12:57 pm
I don’t see why a unionist would be unable to recognise the value of productivity, at least if it results from private investment in human capital. Even a unionist must recognise some limit to what can be extracted from capital owners and know that limit is raised by higher productivity. What’s the mystery?
Vote:July 28th, 2007 at 12:58 pm
Or is the mystery in how Jim Knox and his cadre don’t see it?
Vote:July 28th, 2007 at 1:23 pm
David, I appreciate that you highlight comments from Little because he is an excellent leader for modern unions. It’s a pity that some of your readers are so stuck in simplistic, partisan politics to realise how the times have changed.
I worked for several years in the industry training sector where both unions and employer groups had excellent relations aligned to their shared goals of increased productivity, innovation, job-security and growth.
Vote:July 28th, 2007 at 1:41 pm
Everyone knows that the only to increase wealth is via increasing productivity over the long-run and that requires investment in capital – its not like that’s some new position from unionists… they’ve been saying it forever. unionists just argue that the fruits of production should be allocated more equally/fairly than they are in a naked capitilist system…
unlike the tim barclays of this world, who say jokers should magically ‘work harder’ – which is an increduble insult to the working poor – and ten the bosses will magically pay them more, — sensible people know that capex is what raises productivity and unions are determined that the workers should get their fair share.
Vote:July 28th, 2007 at 1:49 pm
sam
Unions have a place, it’s industrial revolution england. Why on earth didn’t somebody notice that these days when 400 people walk into an office building in the morning they all come out each night, they can read and write, they can negotiate their own salary and conditions. The modern day workplace is not the coal mine of yesteryear. Hello !
Vote:July 28th, 2007 at 2:24 pm
Its an oxymoron – the herald’s taking the piss
The unions resist capex because it can cause unemployment in the short term.
Vote:July 28th, 2007 at 2:38 pm
Still wouldn’t trust “Mr Little” as far as I could kick him…
Vote:July 28th, 2007 at 3:47 pm
Goverment policies have seen a lot of divestment even desertion by NZ companies and investment overseas especially China. The Goverment has only actively discouraged production by its Social Policies of extra weeks holiday, penal holiday rates, maternity leave and now forcing employers to subsidise Kiwi Saver. Then theres the RMA and compliance costs. Not worth the effort.
Vote:July 28th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
You can’t entirely blame the government for the China situation – they are hard to compete with. However they do try to take credit for the GDP growth which is mainl based on good commodity prices and nothing to do with their policies.
Manufacturing in NZ has been static in NZ since the early 80s. We’ve rearranged the deck chairs but the government could have done a lot more to encourage productive enterprise and less import dependence with the $20Bn extra they’ve poured into the bludger and bureacrat economy for no noticeable gain.
Vote:July 28th, 2007 at 5:03 pm
“business investment” improves productivity at the expense of labour…fixed cost v’s variable.
The dilema is between capital investment or China.
Unless the Goverment shifts on Depreciation, compliance and RMA China will be the best option
Vote:July 29th, 2007 at 1:14 pm
Sam’s right – bet none of you righties can find an economic study showing that unions decrease productivity. On the other hand there are dozens showing that a unionised workforce is a more productive workforce.
Vote:July 29th, 2007 at 1:43 pm
roger nome
Yes the unions scribble endlessly about how they increase productivity, they do it in the spare time when they are not working.
Unions fund Labour – therefore they support a low standard of Govt and you expect us to believe they support a high standard for business productivity.
Vote:July 29th, 2007 at 2:14 pm
“Yes the unions scribble endlessly about how they increase productivity, they do it in the spare time when they are not working.”
I didn’t know that all economists are unionists. This must be one of those conspiracies like the one that Red Baiter broke open about all the national since academies (all scientists are communists of course) in the industrialised world agreeing that anthropogenic global warming is a problem, so the may further their communistic dreams of global domination. Great stuff Burt.
Vote:July 29th, 2007 at 2:27 pm
Glad you like my comment PJ.
So lets look at how well the unions are doing.
Collective bargaining fails again
Vote:July 29th, 2007 at 2:38 pm
Perhaps there needs to be a shift from the current adversial nature of the relationship between Unions and management to a more collaborative and cooperative one. Like for example in Germany and Sweden.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1153/is_n9_v107/ai_3409832/pg_5
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/02/1039&for mat=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en
The adversial relationship has certainly worked in the US re. productivity hasn’t it?
Vote:http://www.conference-board.org/UTILITIES/pressDetail.cfm?press_ID=3049
July 29th, 2007 at 2:52 pm
Roger Nome
There is also some interesting graphs here which don’t support the ‘Union = good” mentality.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/blogs/showmethemoney
Vote:July 29th, 2007 at 4:10 pm
so it’s the unions are making wages grow to fast burt?
in 2003 a Canadian research report found that a drop of 6.5 percent in real hourly earnings occurred between the years 1980 to 2001, the worst of the sixteen OECD countries studied (in the same study Australian workers were up by 69.4 percent(Osberg and Sharpe, 2003: 22, cited in: Wilson, 2004: 178).
This is in spite of high levels of GDP growth, averaging 3.5 percent (well in excess of the OECD average) over the entire post labour market liberalisation period (1991-2004) (NZIER, 2006: 3, Statistics New Zealand, 1997, Statistics New Zealand, 2005: 76, and OECD, 2006).
Vote:July 29th, 2007 at 4:47 pm
What about the Dr’s leaving the country for more money? What about teachers paid more in private schools than public schools, Dr’s paid more in private hospitals than they are in public hospitals.
Yes nasty private enterprise looking after workers better than union friendly public service. Who would have picked that collective bargaining could be such a disaster….
I appreciate this is talking about today and not the failed policies of the past, but you should really keep up to date when talking about ‘modern unions’.
Vote:July 29th, 2007 at 5:17 pm
“What about teachers paid more in private schools than public schools, Dr’s paid more in private hospitals than they are in public hospitals.”
I’msure that’s the same in every country Burt – the elite go private to get the best and most expensive services – so the staff are paid more – duh!
Vote:July 29th, 2007 at 5:25 pm
The thing I hate about unionism is the compulsion factor. Let the workers decide how they want to deal with their employer in order to negotiate terms and conditions without interference from third parties (with a political agenda.)
When comes to Little’s comments, all I’d say is 2008 is an election year and he’s already jockeying for position within the socialists’ herd.
Vote:July 29th, 2007 at 7:36 pm
“The thing I hate about unionism is the compulsion factor. Let the workers decide how they want to deal with their employer in order to negotiate terms and conditions without interference from third parties (with a political agenda.)”
Yeah, those nastyt unionsts are only out to dick the workers over. That’s why workers on collective contracts are always getting higher wage increases than those that aren’t. Bloody unions!
Vote:July 29th, 2007 at 11:37 pm
“the elite go private to get the best and most expensive services – so the staff are paid more – duh!”
That’s right roger, when the companies make more money so do the employees.
Do you think unions are doing a good job when they financially support a Govt that has been calling for severe moderation in wage increases every year since 1999 while a big surplus builds. That sounds like a middle management person convincing workers that pay rises need to be small while the company makes a large profit.
I thought this sort of pander to the rich and screw the workers was what unions were set up to fight?
Vote:July 30th, 2007 at 12:09 am
Yey for Roger Nome!
Funny that paying people less and disempowering them at their work, as well as undervaluing them in society through that experimental period of Chicago school economics in NZ, saw our productivity taper off compared to Australia…where there are/were still award wages in many professions…
where were all those doctors going again?
Oh right Australia. Where as Roger pointed out wages have been growing consistently in the unionised environment enjoyed in most OECD democracies.
Vote:August 1st, 2007 at 9:33 am
“The thing I hate about unionism is the compulsion factor. Let the workers decide how they want to deal with their employer in order to negotiate terms and conditions without interference from third parties”
Manolo, trade union membership is voluntary in this country, and, in case you haven’t been paying attention, has been for some time. Workers have freely chosen to negotiate with their employers on a collective basis through unions. These unions are not ‘third parties’ either, they’re democratic organisations owned and run by their members, expressing the collective will of the membership in each workplace and beyond.
Oh, and Andrew Little has made it clear he is not standing for Parliament in 2008.
Vote:August 7th, 2007 at 6:20 pm
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