The latest news from Finsec’s unofficial weblog
Finsec met with Finance Minister Bill English this week despite him being very busy with getting ready for the budget.
The meeting was to followed up Finsec members petition seeking the government to step in and make job security a condition of the bank guarantee scheme.
It was a positive meeting, and the Finance Minister is now looking at Finsec proposals and considering them. He will get back to members within a couple of weeks with his response.
This week, Westpac announced that it was freezing wages for all staff on management agreements earning $70,000 and above. No Finsec members covered by our collective agreement are affected by the freeze.
Westpac Union Council Chair Maxine Mullen says that the arrangement shows how essential being part of Finsec is for protecting pay and conditions.
“A wage freeze cannot be imposed upon Finsec members on the collective agreement,” said Maxine “The bank has to negotiate in good faith with us.”
“In negotiations we will be reminding Westpac of the fact the bank is still highly profitable. They can afford to keep us in work, and offer a fair and reasonable wage increase as part of collective agreement negotiations this year.”
“While there is a case for freezing senior management pay, restrictions on pay increases for ordinary staff aren’t necessary, justified or fair,” said Maxine.
Claims development meetings began at ANZ National and Westpac worksites this week and continue through to the end of next week.
Mary McKeown, delegate from ANZ Sydenham said their meeting provided a good opportunity to share ideas and that staff shared the same issues but from different perspectives of their different roles.
“We were very firmly of the view that we don’t want to trade away any conditions at this point,” said Mary. “We also view gaining union rights as an important objective for bargaining. It’s something the bank can do with little or no cost to them, and could be crucial given the change of government and change in industrial relations policy.”
Sydenham branch members were also very concerned about the time-consuming work of Personal Bankers that makes targets even more unachievable. “At times we feel like social workers – talking with customers not only about financial issues but about many other issues. It really does limit the time that we can spend ‘selling’ but is an important part of our work and needs to be taken into account when setting targets.”
Claims development meetings continue at Westpac and ANZ National next week and it is the right of Finsec members to attend and contribute.
If your worksite has not yet set up your claims development meetings please do so as soon as possible.
Our meeting with Finance Minister Bill English to discuss our campaign and petition for job security has been moved from this Wednesday to Monday next week, due to personal circumstances.
Finsec will report back to members next week about the outcomes from this meeting.
Finance Minister Bill English has done an about face and agreed to meet with Finsec to discuss job security in the banks, and our peititon to make employment a conditition of the bank guarantee schemes. This meeting is to take place next Wednesday.
Finsec Vice President Maxine Mullen says that Bill English agreeing to the meeting is evidence of the power that Finsec members have when they work together. Prior to the release of the petition, the Minister had said he was not available to meet with Finsec. “After delivering a 10,500 signature petition and the issue being discussed in Parliament and in the media, Bill English managed to find the time in his diary,” said Maxine. “Finsec members taking action made this meeting happen.”
Finsec General Secretary Andrew Casidy said the meeting would give Finsec an opportunity to get the government on board and supporting Finsec members’ and the public’s call for the banks to step up and do more for their staff and customers. “We’ll be putting forward a series of practical steps the government could take now to protect Kiwi jobs.”
It’s been a huge week in our job security campaign. Our petition was presented to the Prime Minister John Key and Finance Minister Bill English with final numbers of signatures topping 10,500.
We also released an opinion poll showing that the public agree with the idea that job security conditions should be placed on the government’s bank guarenteee schemes.
The UMR research poll shows 79% of respondents said the government should require banks to maintain existing staffing levels and not send jobs overseas in exchange for the taxpayer support they are receiving through the bank guarantee schemes. Only 14% were opposed and 7% were unsure.
This result show the public is on our side and what the government to step in and help protect our jobs.
Reaching our goal of 10,000 signatures shows what can be achieved in a few short weeks when Finsec members work together.
For details of the poll and to listen to the radio advertisements that have been running this week, go to www.finsec.org.nz
Finsec held a media conference in the Beehive on Tuesday as part of the handover of our job security petition – a venue normally reserved for government media conferences only.
Green MP Sue Bradford hosted the event, which was also addressed by Labour MP Trevor Mallard and a supportive statement from Jim Anderton was read out (he couldn’t attend due to illness).
A fired-up Finsec Deputy President Maxine Mullen had a particular message for Bill English “stop siding with bank CEOs and do more to protect local jobs.” Maxine said Bill English needs to meet with Finsec members and look at options for protecting jobs rather than say he won’t meet with us.
Finsec General Secretary Andrew Casidy criticised the major banks’ inaction after the job summit and said other Governments across the globe have asked a lot more of their banks than ours has.
Andrew Casidy said tax payers are underwriting the operation of our banks to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars and urged the Government to listen and act before inaction leads to more workers being forced into unemployment.
To read Maxine and Andrew’s speeches go to www.finsec.org.nz
The message that the government needs to step in to protect bank workers jobs has been all over the media this week.
Finsec launched a nationwide radio advertisement that has played throughout the week on commercial and talkback radio stations.
Green MP Sue Bradford has been out there promoting our campaign too in her weekly column in the Truth and she also asked a question in parliament to Bill English about out petition.
Finance Minister Bill English’s answers are revealing. His response was that conditions are unlikely to be imposed because the guarantee scheme is too important and it would be dangerous for banks to be removed.
We too support the guarantee scheme and don’t want to see banks exiting it – and don’t see that conditions on employment mean that banks will have to exit the scheme.
Finsec Campaigns Director Andrew Campbell says that he anticipates that banks will change their actions in order to stay in the scheme, rather than exit to free themselves up to cut jobs. “A range of options could be available if jobs are cut – including some sort of review process or penalty that allows banks to retain their guarantees.”
Listen to the Finsec job security radio ad here
http://www.finsec.org.nz/
Read Sue Bradford’s Truth column here:
http://blog.greens.org.nz/2009/05/06/bradfords-truth-banks-and-bangalore/
Watch Sue Bradford’s question and Bill English’s answer on YouTube here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcHXe81hHjU
More media coverage on our campaign this week:
http://www.radionz.co.nz/__data/assets/audio_item/0003/1937109/ckpt-20090505-1741-Bank_workers_union_wants_local_jobs_protected-m048.asx
http://www.radionz.co.nz/__data/assets/audio_item/0006/1937148/ckpt-20090505-1810-Banking_workers_union_wants_jobs_guarantee-m048.asx
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/2385864/Keep-Kiwi-jobs
Finsec members have been growing support for our job security petition in the last week, more than doubling the number of signatures in the last twenty four hours.
Our petition will be presented at Parliament this Tuesday 5 May, meaning that petition forms can now be sent to Finsec up until 4pm Monday 4 May.
Finsec organiser Maxine van Oosten has been out in the community all week campaigning with Finsec members. On Tuesday, Finsec members were on the streets of Tauranga. Wednesday saw Maxine at the University of Waikato, drumming up support from students and university staff. Then Finsec had a Thursday lunchtime presence in Hamilton city centre, and all of the weeks activities resulted in several hundred petition signatures.
Maxine said that Finsec members sometimes underestimate the level of community support there is for bank staff. “I talked to someone who asked– can we ask the government to step in to help secure our jobs? I said – of course we can. And you can too!”
A special thanks goes out to the Service and Food Workers Union at Tegal – 70 of whom signed our petition.
This coming week is the last chance for all Finsec members to get out there and gather signatures for our petition to win job security in the banking industry.
Finsec members who are out and about getting signatures off the public are finding that they are getting good support for our petition.
Janis Lee from BNZ in Wellington has been working on collecting signatures. “I was worried that I would hate it,” said Janis. “But last year I collected for Women’s Refuge and really enjoyed talking with people, and I also enjoyed being out campaigning with Finsec members.”
“All of us Finsec members should make an effort to get some petitions signed next week,” said Janis. “Half an hour or even less would make a difference. We can’t just leave it to Finsec staff. I collected 70 signatures and found it really worthwhile.”
All Finsec members can asked to download a petition form from www.finsec.org.nz or ring 0800 FINSEC and we can email or fax you copies and collect signatures this week.
All petitions have to be faxed back to Finsec by next Friday 1 May.
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