Vol. 74/No. 38      October 11, 2010

Vermunt was speaking to a student meeting at the University of Auckland September 22 featuring five mayoral contenders. There are 21 candidates running for mayor of the city.

"What will you do about low pay and protecting workers’ rights?" one of the participants in the meeting asked Vermunt, who is a union member and a meat worker.

"We need to transform our unions to fight for decent wages and conditions,” Vermunt responded. “I support the union campaign to raise the minimum wage, and I am also part of a fight on the job to raise wages.”

As well as running for mayor, Vermunt is standing for the city council along with Communist League running mate Patrick Brown.

"A central plank of the communist campaign is to demand jobs for all," Vermunt said. She noted that when a new supermarket opened in August, 2,700 people applied for 150 jobs. "We demand shorten the workweek with no loss in pay to share the available work. We call for a public works program to create jobs and build housing, schools, hospitals, transport, child care, and other facilities that working people need."

Official unemployment in New Zealand is around 7 percent. However, the total number of jobless, including underemployed, is more than double that figure. Among Maori, Pacific Islanders, and Asians the unemployment rate is three to four times higher.

Vermunt also spoke at candidates’ meetings organized by the National Council of Women September 3, and the Ethnic Council September 26.

The New Zealand Herald, Auckland’s main daily, ran an article on the communist election campaign September 10. It reported Brown saying the Communist League campaign could not be separated from the fight for the working class. Brown and Vermunt, it said, “are seasoned political campaigners.”

An election supplement printed in the Herald September 14 includes the candidates' profiles. This is reproduced on the paper's Web site.  
 
 
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