Monday 11 August 2008

Back to the bad old days

As if to confirm that New Zealand is heading back rapidly to its Dark Ages, the re-nationalisation of NZ Rail is followed hard on the heels by a traditional Cook Strait ferry strike. News here.

Ah, New Zealand's antediluvian past, where every holiday New Zealanders huddled round the Cook Strait ferry terminii awaiting the cooks and stewards to grant them the boon of holiday travel. Those weren't the days.
Not good to see we're heading back there, powered mostly by fear of the unknown future.

4 comments:

Elijah Lineberry said...

I am sure it is nothing a daily flogging of these Communist trades union members would not fix...

Anonymous said...

There was a time when unions and their members were financially responsible for the effects of a strike

So if NZR loses 10,000,000 because of a strike, well they can go after the houses and cars of the strikers, their families, other union members, members of other unions in the CTU...

actually, this is still the case in NZ law except that the EFA has a clause in it preventing these kinds of lawsuits.

Repealing that clause would do more for industrial relations and productivity that anything else.

unions and their members should be collectively financially responsible for the effects of a strike

KG said...

"terminii"...
made me smile at 7:30 on a rainy cold morning.
Civilisation is not dead, after all. :-)

Andrew B said...

Uggh - they've called it Kiwirail?! How appropriate.

At least, back home you get the bad news all at once. Here in London it's one slow torture.