Don’t get me wrong, New Zealand is no perfect pearl. There’s a bounty of issues. Inequality is rising dramatically. Sprawl around Auckland is a huge issue. Environmental impacts on some of the island is devastating. There are interesting signs of progress though, and they are worth looking at closely. There are too many reminders of …
Tag: New Zealand
New Zealand for My Father: Part I
New Orleans When I would return from a trip to some country where neither of us had ever been, when my dad was alive he would ask me to tell him the things that would interest him. Over the years I have found it a useful way of paring down an often overwhelming cultural …
From Heaven to Hell and Back Again for Unions in New Zealand
Auckland Interviewing Mat Danaher of E tu, the largest private sector union in New Zealand with 50,000 members, on Wade’s World, I got a much better idea of the organizing climate and context confronting unions – and workers – in New Zealand. It’s quite a story of going from almost the best circumstances unions might …
Living Wage Campaign, New Zealand Version
Auckland Talking to union members, organizers, and activists in New Zealand, one thing many of them mentioned as a bright, shining spot has been the progress of the Living Wage Movement throughout the country. The national mandatory minimum wage is $16.50 NZ per hour, and the living wage number this fall is going to be …
Good Spirits at the Auckland Trades Hall for “The Organizer”
Auckland How many times do we get to travel most of the way around the world? If lucky, as I have been in life and work, sometimes, but it’s still rare, so it was a gift to hear from Mat Danaher that he was now living and, even better, working in New Zealand. I knew …