Aotearoa/New Zealand

Death on the picket line

In a dispute over contracting out work, Christine Clarke, a picket on a New Zealand Waterfront Workers Union picket line died on 31 December, two days after being run over on the picket line.

Christine Clarke, 45 and mother of two, had joined the port workers’ picket during a dispute at the Port of Lyttelton, near Christchurch, South Island. The company involved in the dispute, Lyttelton Port Company, had announced its decision to contract out coal loading.

The driver, a local businessman who had already been through the picket line several times that day, became abusive. Christine Clarke was run over when the vehicle was suddenly driven directly at her and then driven off at speed.
Christine Clarke’s death is the second at a picket line in Aotearoa/New Zealand, the first being a miner, Frederick Evans, who died after a baton blow to the head during the Waihi miners’ strike in 1912.

Christine is survived by her husband and two children.

Lyttelton parish priest, Father Jim Consedine a long time family friend, said, “She was very self-effacing and humble and would have seen the irony in becoming a public figure in death.” He remembers her as a warm, open person with a wonderful sense of humour.

The memory of Christine Clarke and her peaceful direct action in solidarity with workers protesting against their jobs being contracted out, will live on in international trade union history.

From Asia Pacific Workers’ Solidarity Links, New Zealand, 4 January 2000 and John Braddock on World Socialist Web Site, 5 January 2000

Good News!

In a welcome move away from New Zealand’s all out embrace for neo-liberalism, the new Labour-Alliance coalition government is finally giving some solace to workers and the labour movement. New Zealand workers have seen no let up in the government’s monetarist policies since deregulation and privatisation began in 1984.

The detestable Employment Contracts Act (see ALU 29 for details), enacted in 1991, is to be repealed by the new government. The Act is to be replaced with a new Employment Relations Act.

The new Law requires management and workers to bargain “in good faith”, but political commentators say this will not be defined in law. Instead this indistinct concept, good faith, will be determined by the Employment Court, which will also have the job of enforcing “bargaining in good faith”.

The law will also afford workers some protection against “unfair contracts” which permit arbitrary dismissal. These cases will also be decided in court, and reinstatement as opposed to compensation will be a possibility. This will be backed by interim reinstatement pending the outcome of cases through the Employment Court.

The new worker protection is expected to prompt a sharp rise in legal action by employees as they explore the extent of the new protection.

Source: Evening Post, 14 December 1999