Bosses astounded workers won't slave themselves for crumbs
The perfect example is yesterdays story that the Jobless unprepared for the 'realities' of workforce. In it, boss after boss after boss are stunned that the unemployed won't slave themselves for crumbs off their plate. Because NZ hates the dirty filthy bennie so much (bashing them is our fourth favorite cultural hobby after rugby, alcoholism and domestic violence), this latest attempt to justify why they won't take up jobs that offer slave wages is as attractive to redneck snarling talk hate radio as arming Police with semi-automatic grenade launchers.
What the story doesn't look at is how the jobless would get to the work place in the first place without a functioning public transport system for $13.50 an hour, how do the jobless pay for child support on $13.50 an hour, how do the jobless pay for petrol on $13.50 an hour, indeed why would anyone with any skill not leave NZ for Australia where they can get paid twice as much?
The legacy of our low wage economy seeded by the National Party in the 1990's with the Employment Contracts Act is not mentioned once in the news story, just the right wing meme dat dem lazy fucking bludgers won't work. The pittance being paid doesn't cover the cost of living, so who works as a slave? Apparently the bossman and NZ Herald believe slaves should be lucky.
We are rapidly becoming uglier by the day and with the economy sinking deeper because of the Great Recession, that ugliness is becoming the accepted norm without one counter perspective allowed.
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posted by Bomber @ 7:49 am
3 comments
3 Comments:
Thanks again Bomber. These were my exact thoughts as I read this propaganda.all very Dickensian . Blame the poor for being poor.
One of my tertiary educated offspring has been working casual rates for the last year and a bit in the hospitality industry so he can accumulate enough experience to work the catering teams in the large projects in Aussie . They are screaming for people with a minimum of 2 years experience)Torrid working conditions over there isolated etc. BUT they are paid appropriately.! The salaries offered beat ANYTHING he can get professionally in NZ that reflect his level of education.he will also be trained. and be permanent after 3 months and be offered further training.( management ) So remember folks your young vibrant food and wine waiter/barperson/pizza cook/chef/kitchenhand/duty manager is probably better educated than you and can't wait to get the fuck out of kiwi.
I notice the management class complaining that dairy farmers are having trouble filling vacancies in the dairy industry. They're having to bring in farm workers from the Philipines and India, because NZers don't want the jobs. The truth is that labour conditions on a lot of dairy farms are often appalling, the hours worked are horrendous, some owners / managers are make it extremely difficult for staff to get their rostered time off. It's not uncommon for staff to work 11 or 12 days on, 3 days off, starting at 4am, and often not finishing until 6 pm. If they're lucky they get an hour for lunch. As most farmworkers live on the job they are expected to be available at all hours of the day or night to deal with emergencies. Employment contracts are often non existent, or not worth the paper they're written on. And many many dairyfarm bosses staff management skills are non existent, and staff abuse is common.
I have family & friends involved at several levels in the dairy industry, so I know these are genuine stories. I have friends who have "rescued" Philipino staff off dairy farms in N Canterbury, by finding them alternative employment, because these poor workers and their families, who have migrated to NZ for a better life, find themselves being treated almost as slave labour by their bosses, and have BEGGED for help. On one huge farm in our area the staff are forbidden to speak Philipino.
My son was considering getting into dairying, until he worked out that the REAL hourly rate for a first year farmhand was around $8.00 / hour - even including the accomodation, power & meat that are normally included in the "wage package".
Truth be told, I think a lot of the "bad" dairy farm owners & managers really prefer to employ migrant staff, after all once someone has committed themselves to move themselves and their family here, they tend to put up with a lot more shit than a stroppy Kiwi kid. Migrants are strangers in a strange land, and many have language issues, and feel very isolated in rural NZ.
This is what NZ's great dairy boom is based on
Percy
The really dishonest thing in all of this is that if you were to ask these 'bashers' if they like the idea of slave labour, most wouldn't inprinciple. Then they come out with the usual crap like ".....sometimes [WE] have to make sacrifices...." that is if its not them making the sacrifices, OR .... "in my day....." (forgetting that in "their day" there was more of a community spirit, and the means to support oneself by establishing vege gardens and chook runs in urban areas, et., etc. (That "luvly man John Key will know all about that of course - having come from a hard background with a struggling solo mum (NOT!) - the biggest load of media spin YET!
To all such excuse-makers, let's cut the pretense shall we? In first world countries, IF a business can only be profitable by paying slave wages and operating with unsafe or substandard working conditions, THEN that business is not a viable one. IF they want to use the "[WE] must make sacrifices excuse and operate with these conditions, then let's not pretend we're still part of the first-world.
Aged-care workers - case in point. Let's hope (for their sakes, they're not under the illusion that they won't suffer when their time comes and they're parked up in some gated geriatric community in the hope they'll be treated as they wish. THAT will only happen IF they're wealthy enough to pay their care-givers a livable wage (and more). That's OK though ... from the examples I know of to date, the greedy spoilt little offspring barely even visit those responsible for their inheritance and only even visit 'in passing' once a year. Kama I 'spose.
I hope a certain former-Mayor (for example) isn't haunted by conscience with her creator parked up somewher on the Kapiti Coast and confiding in the caregiver (working on slave wages) that the offspring was a selfish out-of-touch bitch.
Sad shit really ..... cudda, shudda..... wudda (but for the fact that it was just SO damned inconvenient and a threat to loifstoil.
Same goes for most of them (the apologists/excuse-makers)
Amazing what greed and avarice does really - one thing's for sure - it creates really UGLY people. Some are actually so fucking thick that they didn;t even realise the creator of a Bett Lynch was satirising. The NZ equivalent who sometimes "stars" on Q+A as some sort of expert bullshitting about how SHE BEEN THERE "knows".
There's another too (the list is actually long! ) Telecom CEO's, Brewery CEO's -who, btw IF they CAN;T run a successful brewery in a country like NZ then they'd have to be a complete dolt - as opposed to being "branded" as a good businessman.
FUCK ME!!! If we have to aspire to that spin, then there is fuck all hope of "competing in a global konmy"
Like Bill, who probably still hasn't figured out yet what's causing his kids, why would thinking people regard NZ heading for the 3rd world as a place to be when 2000k west there are viable alternatives.
Why? when they can get paid a livable wage (even me nearing dotage, but with prospects there, proferring expertise at some tertiary institution into the meaning of life and the universe).
And WHY do (what's been characterised as the 1%) think their future is secure and that 99% won't actually revolt. They've obviously never engaged with hisotry (which is not surprising since they don;t see the value in a Public Sphere or any form of intelligent discussion.
I bet they'll squeal like stuffed pigs and protest their innocence when the 99% wake up and call them to account.
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