Back to the future with the ERB

National’s Labour spokesman Wayne Mapp says a threat by the National Maritime Union to take Auckland’s port strike nationwide is a sign of things to come.

On radio Trevor Hansen, secretary of the National Maritime Union suggested that the strike could be extended to include other ports.

“A move to coordinate further strike action around the country is the first warning sign that the Unions will go all out to get multi-employer collective agreements.

“This wave of strikes is exactly the kind of thing that Labour’s Employment Relations Bill will deliver and will cost the country many millions of dollars and is bound to effect other critical industries like dairy and meat processing at a huge cost.

“This strike action marks a return to the bad old days of strikes, compulsion and multi-employer collective agreements. All these moves reduce the freedom of workers and employers and will make doing business in New Zealand a lot harder.

“And what is Labour doing about it? Nothing.

“It’s nothing just another slap in the face for those who generate this country’s wealth,” says Dr Mapp.

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>