Brash confirms he will attack workers’ rights

Don Brash has confirmed that a Government led by him would be a return to the industrial dark-ages.

Dr Brash told a group of employers in Auckland today that he would repeal proposed changes to the Employment Relations Act.

The national secretary of New Zealand’s largest trade union, Andrew Little of the EPMU, said that Dr Brash’s speech underlined the importance of the decision his union had taken this week to fight to keep the National Party out of power.

“The only vision that National has for working people is to strip them of their rights,” Mr Little said.

“Trotting out the rhetoric of the 1970s is hardly cause for confidence that the National Party understand the needs of a modern workplace for a mature, collaborative relationship between the workforce and the employer.”

Mr Little said that the Employment Relations Act and the proposed amendments were aimed at preventing a free choice by workers to belong to a unio and negotiate collective being arbitrarily undermined by their employers.

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EPMU - Engineering Printing and Manufacturing Union

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The EPMU is a democratic union representing over thirty thousand members in ten industries across New Zealand.
By standing together in a union workers get higher wages and better conditions.
As the country's biggest private sector union the EPMU can provide members with workplace representation, legal advice, a freephone support centre, work rights education and broad representation through the EPMU's campaigning and research work.
We campaign for fairness at work and a strong economy based on skilled jobs and investment in manufacturing.

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