(en) New Zealand, AWSM - Massive Fire Next-Door to AK Press, Oakland

This morning we woke to hear the awful news that our friends at AK Press, Oakland have 
suffered from a significant fire that started in an adjacent building. We understand there 
are two confirmed fatalities located in the property next door, while those that reside in 
the AK Press building managed to escape to safety. ---- AK Press have been inundated with 
letters and messages of support from around the world and Aotearoa Workers Solidarity 
Movement simply wish to add to that sentiment by offering the workers collective our 
thoughts from New Zealand's distant shores. ---- Most anarchists who are fortunate enough 
to own a book or three will no doubt have at least one that was printed by AK Press. The 
collective was born in Stirling, Scotland whose founder Ramsey Kanaan named the group 
after his mum Ann Kanaan (AK Press) in 1987. Starting as a mail order distributor it has 
become a cultural cornerstone of the global anarchist community. Ramsey left with a number 
of others in 2007 but the workers cooperative continues to publish, distribute and inspire 
our dreams and desires.

The latest update from our comrades is that much of the damage sustained is from the 
sprinkler system however it wasn't as destructive as they had feared. They are busy 
shoveling out the water and trying to assess the full consequences of the incident.

Kia kaha AK Press, our thoughts are with you all.

Aotearoa Workers Solidarity Movement

http://www.awsm.nz/2015/03/22/massive-fire-next-door-to-ak-press-oakland/

(en) New Zealand, AWSM - Zero hours = Zero dollars = Pissed off

There has been a lot of discussion and organsising on zero hour contracts recently (see 1 
| 2 ). We interviewed two people on zero hour contracts to illustrate that the problem of 
casualised labour is much wider than just the fast-food industry, where members of Unite 
union are currently fighting against these precarious work conditions. ---- :: Kia ora, a 
couple of years ago, you were 'employed' by a NZ university. Can you tell us about that? 
---- Ae kia ora. Yes just over a year ago I received a panui about this university looking 
for research assistants so I applied. About two months later it was arranged for me to 
attend an interview. I went to that city and attended a hui at a fancy kind of pub where 
the proposed research project was discussed with the relevant project organisers and some 
new PhD students. I realised after some time that this wasn't really an interview so asked 
what this process was. I was informed that I could have the job if I wanted it and they 
would send me the relevant paperwork for the contract. After quite a few emails the 
university finally sent through the contract and I signed it. After a few months I asked 
what was going on and was informed that someone would contact me. I had already contacted 
her several times and got no replies. I've now waited over a year for any actual work.

:: Why do you think universities have these zero hour contracts in place?

I presume now that they use contracts like this to secure funding and bump up their 
so-called EFTS that make them look as if they are employing more people than they actually 
are. From what I've seen of other projects and contracts with this university they receive 
very large 'administration' fees from funding arrangements.

:: How does it make you feel? You went to an interview, got selected, signed a contract 
and didn't get a single dollar out of this!

Pretty pissed off. You know I'm trying to arrange to pay my bills and feed my son etc and 
you budget ahead thinking you'll have money coming in and you don't apply for other jobs 
because you think you already have one. It also makes you feel really used and 
unappreciated, wasting your time on pointless correspondence and CV preparation.

:: How do you relate to other workers, for example in the fast-food industry, who are 
currently fighting zero hour contracts?

Well, I only started hearing about what my contract is really called when I heard about 
the recent proposed zero hour contracts for doctors. So it's all a bit new for my brain. 
Ideally I would like to get involved in this fight but in reality I've got another baby 
coming and bills to pay for a new rental place I've moved into and I just don't want 
anything to do with this university now. I've chosen not to name the university because 
I'm still on their contract and am unsure whether I should get off it or use it to fight 
them. Any ideas?

==========

:: Hey, you have just signed a zero hour contract. Do you work in the fast-food industry?

No, I don't. I have just started to work for a labour hiring company. The contracts there 
are totally casual. Basically, by signing the contract, the boss doesn't agree to offer 
you any work, and you don't agree to take any assignments offered.

:: How does that work in practice?

Well, if you want work, you have to let them know what days you want to work and then just 
ring up first thing in the morning and hopefully they have got something for you. But 
there are no guarantees at all that you will get any work. Some people work full-time on 
assignments lasting months and months. Basically, the middle-man, the labour hiring 
company, just takes another cut out of your wages. You are being exploited three times: by 
the boss, the other boss and the government. Other jobs are just for half a day and that's it.

:: Sounds pretty stink.

It is if you are after full-time work and really depend on the money as your primary 
income. To be honest, I also quite like the flexibility and not being tied down with no 
holidays and no family time anymore. But I am lucky because I have another part-time job. 
But yeah, capitalism is a ruthless system of individualising, atomising and attempting to 
destroy what little collective spirit we still have. I heard a few years ago a union tried 
to organise amongst labour hiring workers. It is virtually impossible to get anywhere with 
contracts like these.

:: Have you followed the organising efforts against zero hour contract in the fast-food 
industry?

Yes, a little bit. It's good to see workers organising against these vicious attacks from 
above. I suppose their situation though is quite different to hours. At least they are 
working for the same company shift after shift. For us, while we work for the same labour 
hiring company, we may have a different assignment every day working for another company. 
Those companies have no obligations to you, and nor does the labour hiring company. It's 
pretty messed up.

New Zealand, AWSM - Zero Tolerance for Zero Hours

In New Zealand precarious work was common throughout the 19th century. Workers though 
throughout the first half of the 20th century fought for, and won, a number of protections 
that significantly increased their security. In the last 30 years however, the number of 
people in insecure work has risen again sharply, as employers have argued that they need 
to cut costs and increase worker flexibility to compete with emerging countries in an 
increasingly globalised economy. Technology has also changed how and when work is 
performed, and the work environment has changed with the public demanding more flexible 
services and products. ---- Insecure work disproportionately affects those who are amongst 
the lowest paid, with women workers, young people, Maori and Pacific workers, migrants and 
people with disabilities being the hardest hit. Insecure workers also face significant 
uncertainty over how long their job will last, as it can be terminated with little or no 
notice. Furthermore, they often have limited control over their hours of work, and work 
environment, and face limited access to benefits such as sick leave, as well as a lack of 
rights, such as protection against discrimination and unfair dismissal.

New Zealand is particularly affected by insecure work because after decades of undermining 
by successive governments of the rights workers fought for, employment protection laws are 
relatively weak. According to the OECD, New Zealand has the developed world's fourth 
lowest level of protective regulation for temporary contracts.

In New Zealand, at least 30% of the workforces, over 635,000 people, were in insecure work 
in 2012, according to 'Under Pressure,' a 2013 report published by the New Zealand Council 
of Trade Unions (CTU). This included those who were out of work; those in various forms of 
temporary employment including casual work, fixed-term, temp agency and seasonal work; and 
those in permanent work where there was a medium to high chance of job loss in the next 
year. Of these insecure workers, there were 95,000 who had "no usual working time" and 
120,000 who had less than two weeks' notice of their work schedule. It should be borne in 
mind that this probably is an underestimation, and the CTU argues that if New Zealand 
collected better statistics about the workforce, it would probably be shown that insecure 
work in fact affects over 40% of the workforce.

When it comes to particular sectors, insecure work has long been common in areas such as 
fast food and hospitality, particularly in the fast food industry. McDonald's, KFC, Pizza 
Hut, Starbucks, Burger King, Wendy's all offer contracts that have no minimum hours, so 
people can be, and indeed are, rostered anywhere from three to 40 hours a week, or 
sometimes 60 hours a week. These contracts with no minimum hours have become known as 
"zero-hour" contracts. In these kinds of jobs, workers often have little idea how long 
their employment is going to last or what hours of work they will be asked to do. Also, in 
many cases the contract forbids them from working for anyone else, while expecting them to 
be effectively on-call and available for extra work at short notice, but with no actual 
guarantee of work. Employees have also expressed the fear that if they turn down the 
request to work, employers will punish them by not offering it in future.

In fact, there is some evidence that zero-hour contracts are used as a management tool for 
disciplining staff without regard to the law. A study in the UK entitled "A Matter of 
Time" found evidence that the threat of "zeroing-down" a worker's hours, i.e. reducing 
them to a few or none, made staff more fearful of complaining about unfair treatment or 
employer abuses. There is evidence for this in New Zealand too, with the wireless.co.nz 
website reporting employees on zero-hour contracts making statements such as, "If we 
aren't available one week, if we've got an event or something like that, or even through 
sickness, those hours will probably stay cut." Another person told the website how the 
desperate struggle for hours breeds a culture that pits staff against each other, 
commenting that, "whoever is the friendliest with the boss will get the most shifts."

The plight of those on zero-hour contracts was highlighted in what was the biggest 
response Unite Union has ever had to a member survey. Over a thousand fast food union 
members working for the major stores in New Zealand responded to a Unite Union's online 
survey, with nearly 700 giving detailed information on their working hours over the 
previous four weeks. The survey results highlighted the hardship caused by zero hour 
contracts. Four out of every five of those who responded reported problems with paying 
basic living costs like rent, power, phone, food and transport as a direct result of hours 
changing week to week, with nearly half saying this permanent insecurity is a problem they 
face on a regular basis, and they struggle to balance their family budgets.

The survey led Unite Union National Secretary Gerard Hehir to state,
"Unfortunately it confirms in detail what we already knew from our worksite visits...Most 
fast food workers are willing and able to work more hours on a regular basis but are 
simply not given the opportunity. Over half who took part actually want an increase to 35 
hours or more a week. We know hours become available on regular basis as other staff 
leave, but the companies choose to employ new staff and allocate hours week to week rather 
than offer any security of income."

The use of zero hour contracts is also reported to be creeping into the retail sector, 
where more and more workers are on part-time contracts with additional hours being 
allocated on a casual basis. Unions have reported that the large supermarkets, Sky City 
and Hoyts, are all participating in such practices in order to further reduce costs, 
despite over-staffing and/or gaining record profits. Finance and transport and 
distribution sectors are all reported to have been seeing an increase in such employment 
practices too, and, as government austerity cuts kick in, so to are areas where they were 
once relatively rare, such as universities and government departments.

Some employers are contending that such contracts can provide flexibility for employer and 
employees, for example by allowing parents of young children, carers, and others to 
accommodate paid work around various other commitments; or students being able to earn 
extra money while maintaining flexibility without committing to set hours. This is fine 
for those who choose to work like this, but for those who need the certainty of a 
pay-cheque that does not fluctuate from week to week flexibility is a huge disadvantage, 
and often the unemployed find themselves forced to take jobs of this nature with threats 
from WINZ that their benefits will be affected if they turn down such jobs.

On April 1, 2015 all of the major collective agreements between Unite Union and the major 
fast food companies expired, and Unite have stated that it is their intention to run a 
major public campaign to end zero hour contracts in the industry as part of the 
renegotiation of these collective agreements. Fast food workers in New Zealand will be 
joining an international day of action on April 15 to support an end to the exploitation 
of this group of workers worldwide.

The fight for a better deal has begun at Wendy's with action at a number of stores across 
the country. Votes to authorise strike action are being held at McDonald's and Burger 
King. Negotiations are continuing more productively with Restaurant Brands (KFC, Pizza 
Hut, Carl's Jr and Starbucks), but it has to be remembered that there are an unknown 
number of workers in other, often non-unionised jobs, with zero hour contracts.

Besides, while it is great that Unite and others are fighting for the end of zero hour 
contracts, we can't afford to lose sight that under the capitalist system the employer is 
always driven to minimise their labour costs, and zero hour contracts is just a symptom of 
the real problem. It suits the employers to keep a large pool of labour at the ready with 
minimal obligation and expense to them. This is a system that means poverty and precarious 
employment will always be a reality for a large section of the population. While reforms 
of various aspects of the system may alleviate certain problems, it will never alter this 
fact. While calling for the abolition of zero hour contracts we also need to maintain our 
focus on the bigger picture and work for the abolition of the wages system altogether, and 
with it the capitalist system.

http://www.awsm.nz/2015/04/07/zero-tolerance-for-zero-hours/