Unions fear job losses from China trade deal

Monday, 22 November 2004, 1:32 pm
Press Release: New Zealand Council of Trade Unions

Unions fear job losses from China trade deal

“The release today of the study into a China-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement has done nothing to allay the concerns of unions,” said Ross Wilson today.

Ross Wilson said that the CTU is not surprised that the study recommends proceeding with a full negotiation.

The CTU has made a major submission on all aspects of the proposed trade agreement including goods, services and investment. Our submission highlighted the atrocious labour conditions of many Chinese workers, the lack of worker rights, and breaches of core international labour conditions.

Ross Wilson said that “the Government should not just talk up the gains and talk down the losses which could come from a trade agreement.

This announcement means that it is an urgent requirement for the Government to work with unions and employers in the manufacturing sector to ensure that a trade agreement does not result in a net loss of manufacturing jobs”.

At a recent business meeting in Auckland to discuss the proposed trade agreement, one New Zealand company based in China boasted that the wage bill for their 22 expatriate staff was the same as the total wage bill for their 2,500 Chinese workers.

“It is this attitude that is of extreme concern to unions if the trade agreement accelerates greater relocation to China of some of the 300,000 New Zealand manufacturing jobs,” Ross Wilson said.

© Scoop Media

New Zealand Council of Trade Unions

Te Kauae Kaimahi

The New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi brings together over 350,000 New Zealand union members in 40 affiliated unions. We are the united voice for working people and their families in New Zealand.

Contact New Zealand Council of Trade Unions

• Website - union.org.nz/
• Media Contact - communications@nzctu.org.nz
• Phone - +64 4 385 1334
• Facebook
• YouTube
• Twitter - @togetherunionnz
• Physical Address - Level 3, 79 Boulcott Street, Wellington.
• Postal Address - PO Box 6645, Marion Square, Wellington 6141.

Scoop Post Election Podcast: The River Of Freedom Documentary Review

After recording a River of Freedom review the Scoop Political Podcast went into hibernation. Now with a new Government formed it’s time to dust off this forgotten silver and look at the potential impact this documentary, about the Wellington parliamentary protest of 2022 had on Election 23. Watched by potentially tens of thousands of voters in the weeks prior to the election this movie was not likely to have won votes for the then Labour government. More

Gordon Campbell: On The Skewed Media Coverage Of Gaza

Now that he’s back as Foreign Minister, maybe Winston Peters should start reading the MFAT website which is currently celebrating the 25th anniversary of how Kiwis alerted the rest of the world to the genocide in Rwanda. How times have changed ...

In 2023, the government is clutching its pearls because senior Labour MP Damien O’Connor has dared suggest that Gaza’s civilian population - already living under apartheid and subjected to sixteen years of an illegal embargo, and now being herded together and slaughtered indiscriminately amid the destruction of their homes, schools, mosques, and hospitals - are also victims of what amounts to genocide. More