New Caledonia: Workers versus Globalisation

Workers in New Caledonia are Fighting Globalisation

“We all have the same goal and that's to fight globalisation wherever it hits us. It's only by joining our struggle together that we will stop globalisation”, wrote the spokesperson for the Union of Kanak and Exploited Workers (USTKE) Pierre Chauvat, a day before his union went to blockade the port in Nouméa, New Caledonia, where one of the largest multinational shipping corporations was planning to unload its cargo, guarded by armed forces.

The USTKE is fighting back at two multinational shipping corporations the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) and Maersk Shipping who are attempting to force local shipping out of the Nouméa to Sydney shipping market at the cost of around 200 local jobs. The USTKE wants the freight volume to be restricted by a quota but the French colonial government and the shipping corporations aren’t going to step down without a fight. MSC is operating from Australia and Maersk from New Zealand.

USTKE have shown the Pacific the power of direct action, occupying the port for three weeks to prevent MSC and Maersk ships from docking and unloading their cargo. The struggle has involved twenty-four hour general strikes and dangerous skirmishes with police on the picket lines.

On the 22nd of June a general strike was on again for 24 hours with blockades of companies that use MSC for freight container transport. Coca Cola was closed by 300 strikers. Food distributors and paper industrial complex in the city were also shut down. Around 1,000 strikers held 4 blockades points, while discussions took place with an MSC manager that arrived from France yesterday.

Pierre Chauvat wrote before the blockades began that, “So far the USTKE rally and mobilisation is strong and continues to develop. People are now fully aware that globalisation is a real danger for the small Pacific Island economy and some commercial protections must be taken into account to allow New Caledonia economy to grow with local controls. The amazing thing to mention is that the local government is completely out of the matter, which means that politically, this local government is detached of crucial internal affairs of the country and all elected representative of house of Congress have shirked responsibilities.”

The USTKE is active in other struggles in New Caledonia as well its fight for workers rights. It is involved in the struggle against a Canadian mining giant's nickel project in the South of New Caledonia, which has encountered strong Kanak resistance including sabotage of about US $10 million worth of mining equipment. The mine site was occupied for several weeks until police evicted them. On the fourth of June eight thousand people rallied against the mine project and were addressed by anti-globalisation hero, radical French farmer and self described anarcho-syndicalist Jose Bove. Bove spent three weeks in jail for his part in the dismantling of a McDonalds restaurant to protest globalisation.

The struggles of the USTKE are one ripple of the continued resistance of Pacific people to colonisation in whichever form it takes; economic, political and environmental. Pierre Chauvat and the USTKE are on the frontlines of a struggle that affects everyone in the world as he points out, “Our struggle is a big one. MAERSK and MSC are very strong and it seems to be that they will not give up easily. Nor we. I hope your fights succeed. I believe that the social movement is on its way, especially if we look at what's happening in South America. Hope is in front of us.”

Published in the July issue of Workers Charter, Green Left Weely and on Indymedia.org.nz

Youth Pay Rates-Polling the People

The polls have almost closed and the government will soon be deciding whether to do away with the youth minimum wage through the Minimum Wage (Abolition of Age Discrimination) Amendment Bill. OMAR HAMED of Radical Youth reflects back on the campaign and hits the streets one final time to see what youth have to say about their pay.

In New Zealand, 16 to 17-year-olds can be legally paid $8.20 per hour for the same work as an 18-year-old who gets at least $10.25. Under 16-year-olds can be paid whatever the employer decides in this country, as there is no set minimum wage for this age group.
When myself and a ragged bunch of young workers and students grouped together, we came to one conclusion.
Paying young people a lower wage for equal work is discrimination – pure and simple. The issue of youth rates is similar to that of pay equality for women with men. In both cases, a member of a social grouping is discriminated against in the workplace because they are a member of that group.

Standing up for a buck

Over the last few months, thousands of students and young people have taken to the streets to demand ‘Equal Work for Equal Pay’. We marched, danced, sung, laughed, cheered and pulled together all meagre resources to create a campaign designed to abolish youth rates.
On Monday March 20 on the stroke of noon in the heart of Auckland’s CBD, 1000 high school students rallied and marched up and down Queen Street.
They demonstrated the power of collective direct action; using their feet to vote for the passing of the Minimum Wage (Abolition of Age Discrimination) Amendment Bill that will scrap youth rates for 16 and 17-year-olds.
This stance was backed up on International Workers Day on May 1 when 500 youth and trade union allies marched again down the main strip to demand an end to discrimination based on age.

Forward Movement

The Ministry of Justice has since advised the government that youth rates are an abuse of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 – news that has been greeted with pleasant surprise from various youth movements.
In addition, Minister of Youth Affairs Nanaia Mahuta advocated for the abolition of youth rates earlier in the Tearaway May 06 issue.
“MYD has long advocated equal pay for equal work. I suspect there’ll be a number of factors that will effect the outcome and those will include how the economy is going and whether there are employers who can support a universal minimum wage.”
She adds that she will be watching with interest as for the outcome of the Transport and Industrial Relations select committee's deliberations on this issue
The ministry has been conducting a nationwide ‘tick-the-box’ campaign in an effort to give young New Zealanders a strong voice on the issue. The polls officially close on June 30.
Over 100,000 freepost postcards were distributed to secondary schools, technical institutes and through Tearaway magazine asking 12 to 24-year-olds what they think about youth minimum wages.
Green Party Industrial Relations spokesperson Sue Bradford – who first tabled the private members’ bill to parliament in December 2005 – pointed out that youth pay rates may already be illegal as a breach of the Bill of Rights.
She backed up the Ministry of Justice’s advice to the Attorney General, saying she would continue to “vigorously pursue (the) Bill to end discrimination based on age.”

The cost of change

Meanwhile, Employers and Manufacturers Association (Northern) employment services manager David Lowe warns that the removal of youth rates would result in an increase in teenage unemployment.
“The abolition of youth rates means a lot more teenagers would find work harder to get. School leavers already find it hard enough to get started. The option to pay minimum youth rates often gets teenage careers underway,” he says.
Citing a survey undertaken last year by the association, in which 14% of employers reported they were paying youth rates, Mr Lowe adds further weight to the opposing argument.
“Abolishing the youth rates would hurt teenagers more than help them, especially with the present economic outlook, because if an employer has a choice between a school leaver with no work experience, and a more experienced worker, they will choose the worker with more experience every time – unless there is an incentive to do otherwise.”

The Final Frontier

Regardless of the outcome, this campaign has proved that youth do have the power. They have the power that rests in wrestling back control of our cities, communities and culture.
Watch this space.

Published in the July issue of Tearaway

Refugees-We are Everywhere

Where should we go after the last frontiers,
where should the birds fly after the last sky?
Mahmoud Darwish, poet

In 1851 my great-great-grandfather and his family boarded a ship in London and set sail for Christchurch. They were fleeing the dire poverty of industrial Britain for freedom in the new British colony that is now my home. In 1967 my father and his family left their village and walked down a dusty road heading for a refugee camp across the Jordan border. They were fleeing the advancing Israeli army that had threatened to kill my grandfather. They were refugees. They were not the first and they wont be the last people to be displaced, to find themselves on the margins of history, unable to return home.

Today there are officially 19.2 million refugees in the world. That’s about five times the population of Aotearoa. Our country has long been seen as a refuge for those who flee war, poverty and persecution in their own countries. In recent times we have had some headline grabbing encounters with the refugee problem like when Algerian asylum seeker Ahmed Zaoui arrived at Auckland airport in 2004 fleeing political persecution and was promptly labeled a “threat to national security”. Just last month a Burmese community leader called Mang Za Khup was very nearly deported back to Burma, where he would have almost certainly been jailed by the Burmese military regime. Both of these men are still in Aotearoa, thanks to the efforts of NGOs and the general public, who put pressure on the government to allow them to stay.

In 2001, New Zealand accepted hundreds of Afghani refugees who had been stranded off the coast of Australia, after the boat they were traveling in started to sink off the Australian coast. They were resettled in New Zealand by the volunteer organisation RMS Refugee Resettlement. A friend of mine in Wellington has been volunteering her time to help an Afghani family settle down into life in New Zealand. Jen spends time with them doing everything from shopping and pay bills to taking them to the hospital and helping them learn English. She told me that, “The family I work with are awesome and I really enjoy working with them, although I find it hard when the mother asks me why social welfare does not give her enough money to cover the costs of feeding and housing her four children.”

Refugees are everywhere, in every country and often coming to live in our neighborhoods and communities. They need support and understanding, they need people to give them a chance to live happily in their own country. On June 20, World Refugee Day, you can help support refugees by volunteering your time or money to RMS or spread the message around our schools and communities, that refugees are human beings who like us deserve respect and dignity and like us deserve a home.

Published in the Ministry of Youth Development's Provoke Newsletter No.2 May 2006