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Union accuses Govt of a cop-out

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Union accuses Govt of a cop-out

3News NZ

Steven Joyce and John Key

Steven Joyce and John Key

Unionists are berating ministers for saying redundancies are "inevitable" and they're accusing the government of doing nothing to protect jobs.

It's been a bad fortnight on the employment front and the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) says 40,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost since National came to power in 2008.

EPMU national secretary Bill Newson is taking Finance Minister Bill English and Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce to task for saying this week redundancies in the coal mining and paper mill industries were "inevitable" and the result of "declining industries".

Mr Newson says those comments are a cop-out.

"While other governments are taking an active role in their economies to protect jobs and promote manufacturing, our government has chosen to cling to a job-killing economic model that's failing Kiwi businesses and Kiwi workers," he said.

"Steven Joyce says the Norske Skog paper mill in Kawerau is a declining industry, yet the same company is upgrading and expanding its business across the Tasman because it's getting support from the Australian government."

Mr Newson says the government is refusing to do anything about the over-valued New Zealand dollar and the economy is relying on cheap imports.

Prime Minister John Key says the Government isn't going to follow Australia's example and support individual businesses the way Norske Skog is being helped in Tasmania.

Mr English on Tuesday ruled out intervening to devalue the dollar, saying the impact on living standards would be catastrophic.

NZN

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Comments

17/09/2012 11:49:17 a.m.

eddie wrote:

Who set up the finance companies into a sweet deal that if you fail, you'll get bailed out?, just curious.

16/09/2012 10:51:59 p.m.

peter draper wrote:

Joe the Bald one in that photo,will be the next Nat leader,that same person sat one paper and took 7 years to get it.

14/09/2012 9:31:55 p.m.

Wiseacre wrote:

@BLAIR - You are correct. The finance companies and banks should have been left to go under. While this Government talks the talk of the *free-market*, what they really practice is *crony capitalism*. While the poor, the weak, and the vulnerable get abandoned to suffer at the whim of the free-market, the rich and the powerful get corporate welfare. Socialism for the rich, capitalism for the poor.

14/09/2012 4:52:32 p.m.

Blair wrote:

Agree wiseacre, except in a "true free market economy" the finance co's, banks et al should have been left to go under & screw the investors who have taken 10% as opposed to a conservative 3-4% Privatising the profit, socialising the losses ...again & again.

13/09/2012 12:42:09 p.m.

Isaac wrote:

When do we act, when do we declare enough is enough. We see the end result of forign owned states across the middle east rebelling against the rising cost of living, we see the results of huge aid program's to Africa that displace its people from the areas that have sustained them for hundreds of thousands of years. We know forign leaders of countries have been assassinated for attempting to improve their countries and help their people and we know children are going hungry. It is up to us, we can either accept the way things are untill globalisation comes knocking, or we create the society we know we are entitled. Join the movement Boycot the system, zeitgeist.com.

13/09/2012 10:43:44 a.m.

joe wrote:

Good photo of two millionnaires who couldn't give a stuff about ordinary people.

13/09/2012 8:19:19 a.m.

Wiseacre wrote:

A *do nothing* Government that presides over massive private-sector job losses - while simultaneously cutting public-sector jobs - and which then goes on to blame & shame the unemployed for not having a job. Where are the 170,000 jobs they kept promising us budget after budget? They've gone awfully quiet about that promise since the last election. Government is elected to run society for the betterment of all. We currently have an authoritarian Government run by free-market fundamentalists. They talk down to the people as if they know best, calling us *moaners* if we dare to question their ability & authority. They impose *social obligations* on the weak & vulnerable while completely ignoring the reciprocal obligation to hold up their side of the social contract. In the world of the free-market fundamentalists, monetary values have usurped social values. Social values express a concern for others. The individual belongs to a community - a family, a tribe, a nation, or humankind - whose interests take precedence over individual self-interest. But a free-market economy is anything but a community. Moral scruples become a hindrance in a dog-eat-dog world and everybody must look out for their own interests. In a purely free-market economy, it is the people unencumbered by consideration for others that are more likely to come out ahead. We live in a society. An economy is just a component of that society. This Government seems to be running a ledger rather than a society. We keep hearing them talk about what we must do for the sake of the economy. How often do we hear them talk about what we must do for the sake of our society?

13/09/2012 8:15:27 a.m.

Bulgar wrote:

At one time,not very long ago, John Key wanted us to catch up to the Aussies - not now - what does that make him?