Re: Union education in economics
Jurriaan I can't locate any official stats on union membership in New Zealand. The abstract below gives some idea. It looks like the full paper is not on the internet, but you can order it from the Industrial Relations Centre at Victoria University - see http://sbpm.fca.vuw.ac.nz/vuw/content/display_content.cfm?id=412 The Industrial Relations Centre probably provides the only useful stats on unions, but they don't seem to have the results of their annual surveys on the internet. See also http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PO0204/S00197.htm Table 4 in www.globalpolicynetwork.org/data/ newzealand/nz-analysis.doc goes to 1998. Regards Bill WORKING PAPER # 2/01 Industrial Relations Centre Victoria University of Wellington New Zealand http://www.vuw.ac.nz/sbpm Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unions and Union Membership in New Zealand: Annual Review for 2000 Robyn May, Pat Walsh, Glen Thickett Raymond Harbridge* This paper reports the results of Victoria Universitys Industrial Relations Centres most recent survey of trade union membership in New Zealand. The survey carries on from our earlier surveys of trade union membership under the Employment Contracts Act 1991, for the years 1991 to 1999. The data reported covers the first three months of the new Employment Relations Act (enacted on 2 October 2000), to 31 December 2000, and records the first increase in trade union density since the mid-1980s. The unions identified in our survey had a combined membership of 318,519. This represents an increase of 16,114 or 5.3 percent over the course of the year. The data also report a substantial increase in the number of trade unions. As at 31 December 2000, the 134 trade unions identified for the survey represent a jump of 63 percent in the number of unions, up from 82 identified by last years survey. This paper reviews the effects of the new legislative environment on union membership and highlights the long-term implications of industry concentration for trade unions. * Robyn May is Senior Research Fellow, Pat Walsh is Professor of Human Resource Management and Industrial Relations and Glen Thickett is a Research Fellow, at the Industrial Relations Centre, Victoria University of Wellington; and Raymond Harbridge is Professor of Management and Head of School, Graduate School of Management, La Trobe University, Melbourne, respectively. This study is part of a larger project which receives funding from the Public Good Science Fund administered by the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology (Contract no. VIC903). The authors are grateful to Catherine Otto for research assistance and would like to thank all the union officials who assisted with this research. Jurriaan Bendien wrote: Bill, Do you have available the current percentage of unionised workers in the total number of wage and salary earners in New Zealand ? In 1985 it stood at about 44 percent and in 1995 it was about 23 percent. I just want to know if this decline has continued (at least in some countries the decline appears to have been halted or even reversed). The PSA library site has some relevant documents but somehow I couldn't access them (?). Thanks Jurriaan
Union education in economics
Bill, Do you have available the current percentage of unionised workers in the total number of wage and salary earners in New Zealand ? In 1985 it stood at about 44 percent and in 1995 it was about 23 percent. I just want to know if this decline has continued (at least in some countries the decline appears to have been halted or even reversed). The PSA library site has some relevant documents but somehow I couldn't access them (?). Thanks Jurriaan
Request: Union education in economics
Hi I've been asked by a union to spend a day with its senior delegates to give them some basic economics (what's capitalism, how does it work/fail to work, the financial system, surplus value); a background to the New Zealand economy; and the impact of globalisation. I can get together material on the latter two (NZ, globalisation), but wondered if anyone on the list had some basic ready-made material on the basic economics (with a marxist flavour) that could be used in this context. It needs to be very simple in the sense of being brief (1-2 hours) and non-technical, but that of course doesn't mean it can't be challenging intellectually. All assistance gratefully received. Bill --- The content of this message is provided in my private capacity and does not purport to represent the University of Canterbury.
Union education in economics
Bill, You could check out a Phd Thesis completed at Canterbury University by G. R. Pearce with help from myself. It's called Where is New Zealand Going ? (1986), available from UCL, and includes a data set for basic Marxian variables (s/v, c/v, s/c+v and various derivatives) applying to NZ manufacturing 1923-1970. So it can be handy for empirical illustrations for the Marxian argument in a NZ setting. The second volume provides a full data set some of which can be updated from official statistics (but others cannot because of definitional changes), including also for example long-range time-series data on strike activity, and other social statistics. The third volume contains a full bibliography and notes. Also, the first volume contains a simplified discussion of supply-side and demand-side economics, framing the different permutations of orthodox economics in one simple model which anybody could understand. Geof Pearce later worked as organiser for the PSA with John McKenzie and was subsequently invited by dissident PSA members to set up another union, NUPE. He didn't have time to publish stuff from his thesis before his untimely death. However Brian Roper published some in an article. Bruce Cronin criticised Geof's thesis, but his criticism is rather flimsy and his own work on NZSNA data is, at least in my opinion, flawed.
RE: Union education in economics
Thanks Jurriaan. This sounds interesting, and I vaguely remember being aware you were working on this (now you mention it). Unfortunately I don't have time to digest useful stuff like this in this case, which is the problem I was trying to address by asking on the list. But I'll keep your message so I can look it up some time. Geoff Pearce's early death was a great loss to the left in New Zealand. Thanks also to Mike Yates who sent me material off-list. Bill -Original Message- From: Jurriaan Bendien [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, 2 May 2002 9:57 am To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:25601] Union education in economics Bill, You could check out a Phd Thesis completed at Canterbury University by G. R. Pearce with help from myself. It's called Where is New Zealand Going ? (1986), available from UCL, and includes a data set for basic Marxian variables (s/v, c/v, s/c+v and various derivatives) applying to NZ manufacturing 1923-1970. So it can be handy for empirical illustrations for the Marxian argument in a NZ setting. The second volume provides a full data set some of which can be updated from official statistics (but others cannot because of definitional changes), including also for example long-range time-series data on strike activity, and other social statistics. The third volume contains a full bibliography and notes. Also, the first volume contains a simplified discussion of supply-side and demand-side economics, framing the different permutations of orthodox economics in one simple model which anybody could understand. Geof Pearce later worked as organiser for the PSA with John McKenzie and was subsequently invited by dissident PSA members to set up another union, NUPE. He didn't have time to publish stuff from his thesis before his untimely death. However Brian Roper published some in an article. Bruce Cronin criticised Geof's thesis, but his criticism is rather flimsy and his own work on NZSNA data is, at least in my opinion, flawed.
