Jobless recovery for workers

Media Release: FIRST Union

What little economic recovery there is remains a jobless recovery, FIRST Union said today.

Unemployment has risen to 6.8% in today’s Household Labour Force Survey.

“Despite business confidence picking up slightly in recent months, the situation for the workers in our economy is getting worse,” Robert Reid, FIRST Union General Secretary said.

“Our union is still dealing on a weekly basis with redundancies, particularly in the industrial sector.”

“The manufacturing industry has been completely let down by the government’s refusal to take any practical steps to address our highly overvalued dollar. This is cannibalising exporters’ margins, and is seeing manufacturing workers pay for government inaction through job losses.”

Scores of workers have lost jobs at worksites where FIRST Union has members in recent months, including Summit Wool Spinners in Oamaru and Norman Ellison Carpets in Auckland.

Robert Reid said any jobs benefits from the Christchurch rebuild seemed years away.

“Any real momentum behind the rebuild of Christchurch seems indefinitely stalled. And unemployed workers, who could do the work of the rebuild, are not being systematically identified and trained.”