Air New Zealand: Sweatshop in the Sky

Big story out today about Air New Zealand and the rates they are paying their Chinese cabin crew. Shanghai based crew flying on the Shanghai-Auckland route, alongside NZ cabin crew, are being paid less than the NZ minimum wage.

This is nothing short of disgraceful and ANZ will get a deserved roasting in the media. Given that they are majority owned by the Government one can expect a serious review of policy.  But it raises some serious issues: where should the line be drawn?

What about staff working locally on the ground? I would say they are in a local designation and so should be paid local rates but the cabin staff are working in an international space and should be paid the same rates as their NZ based counterparts.

Whilst this issue seems clear cut and a PR fiasco for ANZ, how the international labour market works is not so clear. We send manufacturing offshore, an issue that rankles with many,  in order to take advantage of cheaper labour and other costs. So one could argue that ANZ should be employing as many Chinese cabin staff as possible as their labour is cheaper.

One could also take the argument that working for ANZ is a great opportunity even with the local rates of pay and as the local Chinese airline market expands, as it surely will do, then pay levels will rise as competition kicks in.

The internationalisation of labour is going to bring some interesting issues to the surface as well as unexpected consequences. Previously we have had huge barriers to the movement of labour but with the EU expanding and both China and India developing huge domestic markets, the door will be opened wider to a freer and more efficient labour market.

We’ve had the polish plumber in London so how about the Chinese electrician in New Zealand.

As Ben says “welcome to the global village”.

70,000 sign petition for Pervez

Even Condelezza Rice is giving her support to this campaign. Thanks to all who have given their support.

It does/you can make a difference.

Save Pervez: Death Sentence for Supporting Womens Rights

I just finished reading Khaled Hosseini’s follow up novel to the Kite Runner called a Thousand Splendid Suns. It could be called a thousand beatings given the amount of male on female violence in the book. I don’t want to put people off it as he both tells a story and exposes the manner in which many women are treated in feudal based societies such as those operating in some areas of Afghanistan

So it didn’t surprise me when I read about this young man, Sayed Pervez Kambaskh, who has been sentenced to death for daring to download a report about the oppression of women by Muslim fundamentalists and how it was directly against the teachings of the prophet Mohammed.

A huge campaign has been mounted on behalf of Pervez as the continued erosion of civil liberties and human rights continues in Afghanistan. This is what the web is all about so get online and sign the petition, blog about it and generally embarrass Hamid Karzai into action.

Death continues to lie over this country like a dark shadow but its one off events like this that can have huge repercussions.

Armenian Genocide: Barrier to Trade?

Surely this is a joke? The White House is disappointed over the recognition of the 1915 Armenian Genocide by Congress because it might effect trade issues and the war on terror.

Oh the irony.

The Turks have reacted predictably by recalling their ambassador.  And they want to be in the EU?

It makes Alice in Wonderland look sensible.

Freedom to be

We’ve just finished Freedom Week here in New Zealand, a campaign run by Amnesty International to raise money and awareness. Also MyAmnesty has been launched. Get online and participate.

Some 130 collectors braved the southerly on Friday to collect in Christchurch (yes i was one of them) so well done to all those and to those who donated and stopped for a chat.

Without basic freedom we have nothing. Freedom to be, to think, to speak, write, draw or blog!

Whatever your political persuasion it is hard to to look away from the constant abuses of personal security whether for reasons of censorship or war. It’s all the same.

We can’t have a functioning economy without personal security. We can’t have functioning communities without personal security and we most certainly cannot have a decent environment without personal security.

We wouldn’t be sitting here in the blogosphere expounding our thoughts and views on whatever we fancied.

We should be grateful for the life we have here in New Zealand. It’s pretty good.