new zealand

[Bill Cochrane]

John
While I agree with a lot of what you say I would strongly disagree that the
greens are the "natural allies of labour" or that  in order to make
"significant gains for the working class it will be necessary that both the
Alliance and the Greens "assist" Labour in holding the line." The greens
have done as much as possible to damage the Alliance both immediately prior
to leaving it and since. Bluntly the green party is attempting to effect the
political assassination of the Alliance with the ultimate goal of becoming
Labours coalition partner of choice. Given the petty bourgeois nature of its
membership I would not rule out a coalition with a more centrist national
party either. In my experience the individual members of the green party,
with a few honourable exceptions, do not give a flying fuck about workers
and don't even think in terms of class - quite probably denying that class
even exists.
> Does 1999 (the year Labour and the Alliance took office). represent > a
> significant reversal in previous Labour party policy in employment law and
> industrial relations? The answer has to be yes, but qualified.
This is simply untrue,  Read the IR policy from the labour party from 1993,
1996, 1999 what's the big change? The ERB gives concrete form to long
established labour party policy - revoke the ECA, return to a more
prescriptive IR framework, reinstate the centrality of collective bargaining
and the role of Unions. When did you ever hear Margaret Wilson say
different?
The legislation as a whole though is pretty main stream IR in western
countries though the right to strike is very restricted, I reckon the
implementation of good faith bargaining sucks, the ERB does nothing much to
encourage Unions to actually organise members - back to relying on the IR
law to do the organising for you and the way the ERB stands now we might
well end up with some interesting Union v Union stouchs  on some sites.
Hope your enjoying another sunny Wellington winter
Cheers
Bill Cochrane
PS is it true that both Steve Marshall and Ken Douglas have slithered up to
Clark warning of the "dire" employment effects of the ERB?