Little Andrew: Employment Relations (Continuity of Labour) Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is subject to correctionLittle Andrew: Employment Relations (Continuity of Labour) Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 13 November 2013. Volume:694;Page:78. Text is subject to correction.]ANDREW LITTLE (Labour): That was the voice of the dumb and the stupid. That was the voice of the fascist National Party which is just getting worse and worse. Just at a time when the rest of us thought in our more objective moments that National was modernising refreshing and beginning to look like a party of the 21st century even though Chris Auchinvole is going now it trots out Jami-Lee Ross who is now the modern face the modern look of William Massey of Sid Holland and of Bill Birch. National members cannot let their history go. They cannot shake their heritage off them and they trot out a silly bill like this the Employment Relations (Continuity of Labour) Amendment Bill.You know to look at the explanatory note of this bill and to hear Jami-Lee Ross you would think that the Employment Relations Act had nothing to say about employers. The truth about section 97 is that it applies as much to employers as it does to workers who belong to unions. It applies to employers and to workers and their unions. It does not apply just to strikes; it applies to the employers’ weapon of choice when it comes to industrial action—the lockout. Any employer dealing with a union that does not want to continue or that thinks it has reached an impasse can lock those workers out. Without section 97 an employer can not only lock those workers out stop paying them and starve them into submission but also employ a replacement workforce. Without section 97 the Employment Relations Act would be so imbalanced so unfair that the Government would have to trot off to Geneva to defend itself to the InternationalLabour Organization. But most important it would cause egregious harm to working New Zealanders.Jami-Lee Ross does not care about that. The National Party does not care about working New Zealanders—never has; never will. National members look back 100 years ago and lament the good old days of William Massey and Massey’s Cossacks and the horses trotting down Featherston Street—the old farmers and the naval reservists with batons in their hands ready to beat the workers into a pulp. That is the National Party that Jami-Lee Ross now represents. That is the National Party of the future and Simon Bridges is not far behind. That is what National wants. National members have never cared about workers. Most important they do not care about workers’ rights.Here is the thing about this: the right to belong to a union is an inherent and fundamental right. The right to withdraw your labour as part of collective action is an inherent right. It does not have to be justified on commercial or business grounds. That is the nature of workers’ rights and of human rights. Human rights do not have to be justified on the grounds that they add flexibility or they add profit. They stand on their own and they do not have to be defended. The right to belong to a union does not have to be defended for any other reason than it is the free choice of workers. The right to withdraw your labour along with your workmates does not have to be defended on any other basis than it is your inherent right to do so. This bill is about making it harder if not impossible.Let me tell this to that member who is barely out of shorts because he has not been around long enough to understand the real life of working people. Let me tell him and the House this: when workers do choose to take strike action they do not take that decision in any cavalier fashion. It is a very considered very cautious decision because you know what? When you go on strike you lose pay as well. It does not just inflict economic harm on the employer; it puts real pressure on workers and their families.That party the National Party is the party of condescending patronising attitudes towards working New Zealanders. National members have nothing to say about lifting wages and incomes in this country. Their heads all go down because they know that this country is getting poorer. They know that working New Zealanders are getting poorer by the day because National has got nothing for them. National has got nothing to add—Tim Macindoe: That’s not what the stats tell us.ANDREW LITTLE: Tim Macindoe is the worst. He has nothing to say to Hamilton workers about how to lift their wages or how to make their lives better. He has nothing to say to Hamilton workers about how to make working life pleasant more productive and better for both workers and the employer. He has nothing to say at all.National is about owning workers. National is about possessing workers. National is about traducing their rights because National has no respect. This bill is just another mark to reflect this trashy dodgy nasty ugly National Government and the sooner it is gone the better.