Press Release – First Union
Last week’s illegal lockout of Wellington-based NZ Bus drivers has yet again shown us that private businesses simply aren’t fit to run New Zealand’s bus systems, with this lockout becoming the latest in a long line of failures and breakdowns under the ‘PTOM’ privatisation experiment that must end now, FIRST Union said today.
The Public Transport Operating Model (PTOM) is a framework developed in 2009 between Government, councils and private operators like NZ Bus that underpins the delivery of bus services around the country, and represents the most recent iteration in a series of moves to privatise public transport over several decades. Jared Abbott, FIRST Union Secretary for Transport, said that privatisation has meant a race to the bottom on bus drivers’ wages and conditions as companies compete for the lowest bids to deliver services, resulting in poor wages and conditions, strikes, lockouts and reduced services nationally.
A Free Fully-funded Nationwide Ambulance Service Must Be Part Of Health NZ – First Union
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A free, fully funded nationwide ambulance service must be part of Health NZ
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The mill, which makes packaging, has been exporting mostof its products to SIG, which has since found an alternative supplier. It is one of Whakatāne s largest private employers and many of the workers are second or third generation workers.
Christel Yardley/Stuff
Whakātane has been worried about the mill’s closure, coming hot on the heels of Covid-19 and the Whakaari eruption which has severely impacted its tourism sector. However, SIG warned that closure was still “a very real prospect, and steps to work through the wind-down process will continue unless a binding deal is reached”. Acknowledging the uncertainty the workers were facing, the company said it had put in place “numerous measures” including HR and employee assistance programme services.
New hope for future of Whakatane mill
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