Do you want wages with your fries?

Hauraki-Waikato candidate, Angeline Greensill is supporting
the call of union members from around Hamilton and Auckland,
for urgent action to increase low pay.

“Maori workers are disproportionately represented amongst
the lowpaid” said Greensill. “At a median income of
$20,900, Maori are earning on average $270 per week less
than Pakeha - who have a median income of $25,400”.

"What's particularly distressing about that statistic is the
difference between the 2008 stats and the 2000 data-in 2000,
Maori earned on average $119 per week less than Pakeha; so
the gap has become a chasm".

“This week's employment figures leave little room for
optimism” said Mrs Greensill. “They confirm that the
number of jobs is shrinking, with particular tension in both
the manufacturing and transport sectors”.

"The Maori Party is calling on the government to invest in
protecting workers against job losses - they're in a lot
better position to wear the cost than families that are
often already struggling on low wages".

“The action taken by McDonalds workers today, in burning
an effigy of their corporate mascot, Ronald McDonald, is
obviously timed in association with Guy Fawkes’s failed
attempt to blow up the English parliament some 400 years
ago” said Mrs Greensill.

“But for many Maori, 5 November reminds us of a day that
has been described as the darkest day in New Zealand
history”.

“5 November 1881 was the day that Native Minister John
Bryce sent 1600 armed constabulary into the peaceful pa of
Parihaka, leading a savage attack on the leadership of Te
Whiti o Rongomai III and Tohu Kakahi”.

“The military action was designed to break the spirit of
Parihaka but history tells a different story – a story of
people rising up in the spirit of passive resistance”.

“And so we in the Maori Party acknowledge these low wage
workers, who are rising up against low pay, unfair
rostering, insecurity of hours, and poor conditions. All
this after nine years of a Party who every election calls
themselves the workers party, with members clamouring to
establish 'working class cred', now how would that look on a
Tui billboard?" asked Mrs Greensill.

“We support workers' efforts to achieve a living wage, and
believe that the economy must be energized through a
commitment to lift real wages”.

“The Maori Party has a strong commitment to raise the
minimum wage to at least $15 per hour” said Ms Greensill.

“We will not sit on our hands, and watch workers forced to
live on poverty wages; or be silent about the hardship that
their families and children experience”.

Contact : Potaua Biasiny-Tule, ph 07 847 4768

Authorised by K Moxon, 1 Powells Road, Hamilton