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   Vol. 70/No. 1           January 9, 2006  
 
 
On the Picket Line
 
New Zealand preschool teachers
rally against expanded workload
AUCKLAND, New Zealand—Teachers at government-funded preschools across New Zealand stayed away from work December 8, marching and rallying to oppose threats to their conditions and hours of work. Upwards of 1,700 teachers, members of the New Zealand Educational Institute Te Riu Roa, took part in the strike, which closed kindergartens—as these preschools are known—in 22 towns and cities. In Auckland 350 teachers and supporters dressed in red marched to the central city office of the Auckland Kindergarten Association. The government is moving to extend “contact hours” to up to 35 hours a week. Teachers are demanding maximum contact time of 27 hours.

These demands on teachers accompany a government push to expand kindergartens into child-care centers for working parents—at an increased price. Up to now, kindergartens have traditionally offered half-day sessions—either morning or afternoon—and have also relied on voluntary help from mothers.

—Patrick Brown  
 
Seafarers OK Irish Ferries deal,
pushing back union busting
LONDON—Union members on occupied Irish Ferries vessels—the Ulysses in Holyhead and Isle of Inishmore in Pembroke—voted to accept a union negotiated deal December 14. The ships were occupied for nearly three weeks and the union action generated massive solidarity actions across Ireland.

The company conceded continued union bargaining rights for the Services, Industrial, Professional and Technical Union (SIPTU) for all workers and has committed to honor the Irish national minimum wage of 7.65 euros (US$9.20) per hour. New staff will also get more time off than originally proposed.

The company’s original goal of breaking the union, replacing current staff with nonunion labor at half the national minimum wage has been blocked. But most of the current staff have accepted voluntary redundancy terms in which they will receive eight weeks pay for each year worked. Those staying will retain their current wages and conditions, substantially above the minimum wage, leaving a two-tier wage structure.

—Jonathan Silberman  
 
Alabama: Retirees picket pipe
company to protest benefit cuts
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama—Some two dozen retirees from American Cast Iron Pipe Co. held a picket line outside the plant here December 8 to protest the company’s cuts in benefits. Its on-site medical center will become a private clinic and retirees will now have to make co-payments for medical services. Other concessions imposed by the employers include plans to raise the retirement age for health-care coverage from 58 to 65. The United Steelworkers union has tried three times over the past 20 years to organize the workforce.

—Maurice Williams
 
 
Related articles:
Utah miners, fighting for union, picket Co-Op mine
Support N.Y. transit workers
Their fight is cause of all working people
Strikers resist two-tier pensions, want dignity on job
Gas engineers strike in UK  
 
 
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