Farewell to William Peter Bradley, May Day 2012.

Our beloved  branch member William Peter Bradley passed away on 1st May 2012. Born on 26 November 1942, William, who was known to many of us for years as Peter, was a  tireless fighter for justice, and a champion both for people and for the environment.  With qualifications in town planning, sociology and architecture, William was way ahead of his time in promoting environmental concerns and relating them to social issues. One of the projects he was passionate about was protecting  the   Grafton gully cemetery from motorway extensions; and he was also a member of Corso. William practiced considerable kindness to those who knew him, and always had a friendly face, a cup of tea, or a room to stay in, for those came came to visit  him at his home in Coleridge Rd  across the road from the Grey Lynn supermarket, where he lived for many  decades.  A smoker, William suffered from emphysema in his later years and lived at  a residential village in  Mt Albert.  William was a pioneering researcher and prolific letter writer,  and had many letters published in the mainstream media.  A passage from a letter William wrote to his aunt in 1986 gives us a glimpse of this humanitarian and socially committed human being.

 William was farewelled by family and friends  at Grange Manor on Friday 4th May.  Our sympathies go out to his family. He will be greatly  missed.

Janet

John and Paula: Keep your Hands off our Bodies and our Babies!

The Government has announced its plan to "offer"  "free" long term contraceptive devices such as implants or IUD's to beneficiary women and their 16 year old  daughters!  When this is combined  with the threat of having to  leave your 12 month old  baby  to do full time paid work ; or  the threat  of   losing  your  benefit if you don't ,  this is no "free" offer, but a coercive measure where the state is aiming to take control of women's bodies. 

We say to  John Key and Paula Bennett- keep your hands of our bodies and our babies!  If the government really wanted to help low income people to get contraception that they otherwise could not afford, they would  make it free for all  people, male and female,  both in and out of work;   and not target women and beneficiaries. The method   of contraception needs to be the choice of the person using it  -whether condoms, diaphragms, the pill, etc as well as the long term devices.  The  long term methods are known to have poor health side effects for some women and should not be forced upon women  simply because they are the only free methods or because the woman fears to be punished if she has a baby.

Mothering is working and is a tremendous contribution to society. We are raising the next generation of workers! In Australia all parents get a gift of a several thousand dollars when they have a child. This government is  discriminating against  the children of beneficiaries, treating them  as unwelcome and  as  second class citizens, indeed as hardly human.  This is an abuse of the human rights of babies and of mothers.  Paula Bennett openly says that the work requirement for mothers of babies is a penalty for having the baby! And she has not ruled out compulsary contraception in the future- just saying that we "sort of" aren't yet at that stage. 

When children up North search for food in chicken scraps bins and antibiotics bottles, 

we need to remove this government that sacrifices the welfare of women and children for the sake of corporate thieves!

Hey There John Key, Raising Kids is Working! Lively May Day Protest.

Members of Waitemata Unite , the Service and Food Workers Union, Occupy Auckland, Mana Waitakere,  Feminist Action , The Auckland Women's Centre, Citizens Against Privatisation, The Water Pressure Group, the Home Birth Society, and other unionists and community  members gathered together on May Day, International Workers Day;  to celebrate the work of Mothers and to protest against the Social Security Amendment Bill which  will require mothers who have a child on a benefit to be available for paid work when their baby is just 12 months old.

The gathering at Aotea Square, and the pram parade up to WINZ Queen St was  the first of actions around the world  in support of the Global General Strike called by Occupy Wall St.
Although the strike was largely symbolic at this point, it acknowledges that our labour (whether paid or unpaid) is our power, and that if we withdraw our labour for long enough, and get organised;  we can bring the capitalist system to its knees.

Several women spoke about the importance of mothers being able to raise their babies and not be forced to give them up to day care;  and of the need for recognition of the valuable work the mothers do.

  About one hundred Mothers , grandmothers and activists with   small children pushed strollers with babies and teddies up the street, leading the other  protestors and unionists carrying   colourful banners and placards. We sang  "Hey there John Key, Hey there John Key, Do you hear? Do you hear? Raising kids is working , Raising kids is working, Is  that clear? Is that clear?"  (to the tune of Frere Jacques). Chants included: " Calling mothers, calling children, Join together, Join your union" and "Welfare Rights are under attack, Stand Up Fight Back."

At WINZ  a delegation  went up the path to the foyer and asked to be allowed to go in for five minutes to give teddies to the children (who often have to wait for hours with no toys to play with)  and to give some flyers to the beneficiaries about the latest welfare changes.  However Hilda Rash , the manager of WINZ Queen St, a policeman and a security guard , would not let us in. One woman was eventually allowed in without any flyers   but was grabbed extremely roughly by a policeman when she tried to tell the people in there  about the protest outside. She suffered painful cuts to her hands. Many of the protestors were extremely upset about this violence towards a peaceful protestor; and upset in the first place  about  not being allowed  into a public building.

At about 2.15 pm  protestors  from the foyer joined with those  on the street  to  tell them what had happened, and some more people  addressed the crowd. The last speaker, Hone Popata,  encouraged people to join the  Aotearoa is not for Sale Hikoi which was on its way to Wellington (and which included another welfare protest in Wellington  a few days later). We ended  with more chants led by Hone:  "Community rights are under attack , Stand up fight back,"
"Babies' rights are under attack, Stand up Fight Back"
and a call -response
"I say "Wahine", "You say "Toa " "
"Wahine'  .."Toa"   'Wahine'....."Toa"
'I say "Tama"  "You say "Toa" "
"Tama"..."Toa."
"Tama'.... 'Toa"

The whole event was filmed by Redstar on live stream and can be viewed here:

http://bambuser.com/v/2601683

Press Statement on Welfare Reforms, for International Workers Day

 Press Statement from Waitemata Unite

                            on the Government’s Welfare Reforms

On May Day, International Workers Day, 1st May, 2012.

May Day,  1^st May, International Workers Day, is  a celebration of the internatonal worker’s movement,  a time to celebrate our achievements and to promote our rights.  Workers create the  goods and services upon which our society depends.

This May Day, Tuesday 1^st May, the Waitemata Branch of the Unite Union is calling for the work of mothers and carers  to be recognised for the important work it is.

“Mothering is a 24 hour per day job which is not even paid “, said Janet Robin  who is President of the branch.

“Mothers are bringing up the future workers and tax payers” she said. “ In the future we are going to need many more young people to do the work  so that society can support  our increasingly  elderly population,.”

“Children are our taonga”, she said. “Society should be appreciating and supporting the mothers who raise them.”  “ But this government treats  single mothers and their  children as unwelcome and blames  them for the economic crisis which  they did not create.”

Ms Robin said that both National and Labour  discriminate against beneficiary families.

 Labour’s Working for Families gave tax concessions to families who did not receive benefits,  but not to those that did.  “Although this improved the incomes of some   families, it widened the gap with the very poorest ones headed by single  parents”, she said.

It also meant that some wealthier families could afford to have a parent at home, and yet a  poor single parent, who had no partner to help her with her children, was expected to  go out and get a job, at a time of rising unemployment.

“National’s Social Security (Youth Support and Work Focus” Amendment Bill is  even worse “ she said.  “A first born child’s need to have its  mother at home until school age is recognised, but the need  of a second child for its mother  is not.”

 “ Indeed some mothers of one year old babies will be required to be available for full time work!” she said. “National is saying that this second child is a second class citizen.”

“The early years are crucial for a child’s attachment and bonding with its primary parent” said Ms Robin.  “Children need love and security to grow up to be healthy responsible adults.” “Breast feeding is best for a child’s health, but this government’s policies don’t support that either.”

“All mothers and children should be valued and supported by society” said Ms Robin. “We call for Paid Parental Leave to be extended until the child is at least three.”   “ Mothers in the work force need free quality child care and  time off for breast feeding, sick children, and school holidays.”   “Women need to receive equal pay with men.”  “All workers and beneficiaries have the right to a living income, and to time with our families.”

“We need social welfare, not corporate welfare,”  said Ms Robin.  “We need fully funded quality  health and  education, decent jobs, and living incomes for those who are mothering, caring, or are sick.”  “Instead National wants to privatise health, education and welfare and cut public sector jobs.” “We need to stand up and fight this!”

Ms Robin said that the government was trying  save the falling  profits of the banks and corporates by driving down wages and benefits.”

“ The banks and the coroporates should pay for the economic crisis they created, not us” she said.   “It’s time we had a policies based upon social need, and not corporate greed.”

 

Waitemata Unite is calling holding a rally to protest the welfare changes on Tuesday 1^st May at 1pm at the Aotea Square, followed by a pram parade to WINZ, Upper Queen St at 1.30 pm, to hand out teddies to children.

Janet Robin
President
Waitemata Branch of Unite Union
c/- 0272800080

unitewaitemata@gmail.com

 

·       Source:
http://www.beehive.govt.nz/sites/all/files/27_Feb_Welfare_Reform_QandA.pdf
Sole Parent Support
This includes all those on the DPB and Widow’s Benefits with children under 14.Those receiving Sole Parent Support will be expected to look for part-time work when
their child is five years old and full-time when their child reaches the age of 14.
Those who have an additional child while on benefit will be exempted from work
expectations for 12 months, in line with parental leave provisions. Work obligations will
then revert to the age of the youngest child when the parent went on benefit.
For example, a beneficiary with a seven year old, who has another child, will return to a
part-time work expectation when their newborn turns one. A sole parent of a fourteen
year old who has another child will return to a full-time work expectation after one year.

·      

·       Waitemata Branch of Unite Union

·       waitemataunite.blogspot.com

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1ST MAY, WELFARE PROTEST 1PM AOTEA SQUARE 1.30 PARADE TO WINZ

Welfare Rights are Under Attack!

Stand Up Fight Back!

Stop National’s Attacks upon Mothers and Babies,

Older Women and Youth!

No to the Social Security (Youth Support and Work Focus) Amendment Bill 

Whilst unemployment sours; the government wants to force beneficiaries to compete with workers for

non-existent paid jobs on a “Job Seeker Allowance.” Only a tiny number of Invalids Beneficiaries will be exempt. Youth will get hardly any money, and instead will only have a card with which to buy permitted groceries. Even young parents will have no control over their money. Older women living alone, and widows, will now be forced onto the labour market bringing down wages. Single mothers, who are already doing the most important work of all, will be torn from their children and babies and forced to look for full or part time work.  Mothers with babies as young as one could be forced to work full time!  

The Government wants to privatise welfare which will allow private companies to make big profits out of the poor! This must stop! Mothering is work! Beneficiaries and workers have a right to a

living income and to time with our families!

May Day Pram Parade

Celebrating the Work of Mothers,

Tuesday 1^st May, 2012 , International Workers Day

1pm : Assemble Aotea Square, Queen St

1.30pm Pram and Push Chair Parade

to WINZ, 450 Upper Queen St

At WINZ we will hand out  teddies and soft toys to children

Bring your prams, push chairs, toys and children!

Social Welfare not Corporate Welfare!

 Don’t separate mothers from children!

 No Privatisation of Welfare! Living Benefits Now!
unitewaitemata@gmail.com

     8369104   0272800080

Lively protest and march from WINZ to Bennett's Office, Wednesday

Unite Waitemata members and friends gathered with banners and placards ;  and handed out  leaflets  at Henderson WINZ on Wednesday;  about the new legislation attacking mothers, older women, and youth.  Several beneficiaries  expressed great interest and joined our union on the spot!  Then we marched to Paula Bennett's Office up the road.   Again we met with great public support, including from a wharfie who promised us support from wharfies, on  our May Day March for  Single Mothers Rights.

(Wharfies are at present in a life and death struggle against scab labour,  corporatisation and privatisation down at the waterfront! Everybody needs to get down there immediately to support them!!)

Remember everyone- our next big protest about the welfare cuts will be on May 1st-May Day!

Social Security Amendment Bill (Youth Support and Work Focus) Introduced

Social Security (Youth Support and Work Focus) Amendment Bill

http://www.legislation.govt.nz/bill/government/2012/0010/latest/DLM4360211.html

Protest 1 May, 1pm, Aotea Square, 1.30pm Pram Parade to WINZ Queen St

Welfare Rights are Under Attack!

Stand Up Fight Back!

             Stop National’s Attacks upon Mothers and Babies, 

                                          Older Women and Youth!

Stop National passing the Social Security Amendment Bill !

May Day Pram Parade

Celebrating the Work of Mothers,

Tuesday 1^st May, 2012 , International Workers Day

1pm : Assemble Aotea Square, Queen St

1.30pm Pram and Push Chair Parade

to  WINZ,  Upper Queen St

Occupy WINZ and hand out  teddies and soft toys to children

Bring your prams, push chairs, toys and children!

Social Welfare not Corporate Welfare! Don’t separate mothers from children!

Living Benefits Now!

unitewaitemata@gmail.com     8369104   0272800080

Fight the NACTs Workfare!

Mothers are workers.    

The NACT  (National/ACT) Govt is making a problem where none exists. DPB mothers do valuable essential work and are not even paid for it.  Contrary to NACTS alarmist cries, only 1%  of single mothers are on the DPB for more than 10 years. Forcing a mother who has a child while on a benefit  to separate from  her child when the child turns one year old, is a cruel attack upon the both the  baby and its mother. But the NACTS plan to force mothers of one year old babies into full time work if their older child is over fourteen; and into part time work if their older child is over five!   Whilst only 5% of mothers have children while on the DPB, this government is going out of its way to discriminate against the second child!  Sexist, racist beneficiary bashers accuse single mothers of exploiting the system. Not the DPB mothers!  Not us!  We receive no more than $1.8 billion a year to do the most demanding job in society! Cuts in childcare will put our children at risk. Compare the $1.6 billion to corporate welfare bailout South Canterbury Finance alone. The biggest drains are the Big four Banks owned by Australian banks which made $32 billion in profits in 2011. The real welfare cheats are the corporates and banks that suck many $billions out of the economy every year exploiting low paid workers and creating the poverty that breaks up families and leave mothers raising children alone. Single mothers are not the problem, the bosses with big bank balances are. So why are we being demonised and forced to do paid as well as unpaid work rather than look after our children fulltime on a living benefit?

Why workfare? 

When the welfare state was conceived in the 1930s there was a family benefit which recognised that the cost of raising children had to be paid for. It acknowledged that mothers perform the unpaid labour of raising children to become wage workers and so subsidise the wages paid by the employers.  Labour introduced the DPB in 1974 as a support for single mothers. Thus taxes on profits were used to partially pay for the unpaid labour of single mothers to raise the next generation of wage workers. Why then are single mothers now being forced into paid as well as unpaid work? They must double up with two jobs, one unpaid and one paid. There is no way their wage will cover employing decent childcare or someone to do the housework. Getting a low paid job just means that they do a ‘double shift’ – unpaid work is done on top of paid work.

Cheap labour 

Why? First, we have to look at the wider economy and the global crisis facing capitalism for the answer. Capitalism is in a crisis of falling profits and to restore their profits the capitalists have to drive down wages. The NZ economy is weak and in debt. The bosses are making the working class pay for their crisis. The NACTs philosophy is to create more low paid jobs by cutting wages. Forcing DPB mothers to work part time when the youngest child is 5yrs and fulltime when the youngest is 14 years makes them compete for jobs thus driving down wages. This will add around 30, 000 workers to the job queue joining the 150,000 registered unemployed. This makes workers fight one another for low paid, casualised jobs. So as wages fall, profits will rise due to the extra wealth created by low paid workers.

Demonising single mothers

Second, single mothers are being targeted and forced onto the job seeker allowance because they are blamed as being cheats and scroungers. This divides the working class between employed, unemployed and unpaid workers and diverts attention away from the real problem – corporate profiteering.  More people are waking up to who are the real welfare cheats, the big corporations that get bailed out by the ordinary taxpayer while their living standards drop further. So to deflect attention from the real villains the NACTs are demonising solo mothers blaming them for being a burden on society so that low paid working families see them as the cause of their economic hardship rather than the corporates.

Anti-capitalism   

  

The cause of the NACTs driving beneficiaries onto workfare is the capitalist system itself. It exploits workers and impoverishes families creating the need for welfare. Then it demonises and blames those on welfare forcing them onto workfare. We need to end this system directing our fightback against the real cause, the capitalist class itself, by uniting and mobilising all workers, employed, unemployed, and those fully employed doing unpaid domestic work raising families.  We are all workers and we must unite behind those who are most oppressed and the target of the NACTs workfare attacks - single mothers! An injury to a single mother is an injury to all workers!  Waitemata branch of Unite is committed to organising all low paid, unemployed and beneficiaries as all valuable members of the working class. We are all exploited and oppressed by capitalism which divides and rules us. Enough! We are all part of the 99% against the 1%! We demand:

A living wage and a living benefit!

·         Unite the employed and unemployed!

·         Make the capitalists pay for their crisis!

·         Down with the NACT government’s workfare!

·         Rebuild the unions as organs of workers power!

·         For an end to capitalist system!

·         For a Socialist Aotearoa in a Socialist Pacific!

    http://waitemataunite.blogspot.com               0272800080                      

Paula's Hypcritical Budget Advice

Let them Eat Cat Food!

Government Bill Attacks Youth, Single Parents, Widows, Women Alone.

Attacks upon Youth, Children, Mothers and Grandmothers

Social Security (Youth Support and Work Focus) Amendment Bill 10-1 (2012), Government Bill

http://www.legislation.govt.nz/bill/government/2012/0010/latest/DLM4360201.html?search=ts_bill_Social+Security+Amendment+Bill_resel&p=1&sr=1

Attacks on Youth, including Young Parents =" Income Management".

Only a tiny amount of cash, WINZ pays rent etc directly; and food costs are available in a card only, which will only be able to be spent at very limited shops (perhaps only one). So much for bargain hunting or budgetting!
Then perks of ten dollars extra or so per week if you behave and do approved study.

From the Bill:

"Eligibility, payment and rates

This Bill introduces two new payments for young people that will replace most benefits currently accessed by 16-18 year olds:

• a Youth Payment for 16-17 year-olds with no dependent children who have exceptional circumstances:

• a Young Parent Payment for 16-18 year-old parents (and, if aged 16-17 years, have exceptional circumstances or come from a low income family).

The new payments will be based on the level of financial assistance available at 1 April 2012 and will be distributed through redirections (for accommodation and utility costs), a payment card (for food and groceries) and an in-hand allowance. An abatement-free income level will be set at $206.73 per week. "

First Youth, then the rest of us! Say No to "Income Management" Now!!

Attacks Upon Single Parents, Babies and Children, Widows, and Women alone .

From the Bill:

Rules if you have one child:

• require sole parents receiving the domestic purposes benefit and partners of other main benefit recipients to be available for part-time work when their youngest child is five years of age:

• require sole parents receiving the domestic purposes benefit and partners of other main benefit recipients to be available for full-time work when their youngest child is aged 14 or older:

• Rules for Women Alone and Widows
  

• extend these work availability expectations to women receiving the widows’ benefit and the domestic purposes benefit for women alone:

• extend the ability to require pre-benefit activities before grant of a domestic purposes benefit for sole parents or women alone or widow's benefit.

Rules if you have a Second Child

"Where a parent has additional children while receiving a benefit, their work availability expectations will be based on the age of their previous youngest child, once their newborn turns one year of age. "

This Means:

If you have a one year old baby and your previous child is over five, you have to do part time work.

If you have a one year old baby and your previous child is over fourteen-you have to do full time work!!

We Support the Wharfies; Save our Port!

Waitemata Unite, Unite union members, and thousands of others were out in force supporting the wharfies' right to guaranteed work and time with their families. No contracting out! No privatisation! Sack Tony Gibson, CEO of Ports of Auckland!