Last Wednesday (the 30th of January
2013) Event Cinemas Highland park Theatre Closed its doors for the last time
outside some of the workers (many of whom have been laid off due to the
closure) engaged in an impromptu Les Miserables Re-enactment with red Flags and
Placards. But the lay-offs are not the biggest tragedy rather the pathetic redundancy
pay, Just two weeks for all laid off employees, that has been offered by
management to workers who have served as many as 17 years. This is pathetic
compared to other western nations that have redundancy pay set in law. This
struggle has quite a few parallels with Les Miserables where the poor find
themselves repeatedly victimised by the rich despite already being
significantly disadvantaged. Here are workers who simply want to support
themselves and often their families while a company with plenty of money to
spare tries to maximise profits once again at the expense of workers. When a
group of workers attempted to meet with management on the 29th of
January accompanied by supporters and Unite union staff they were turned away
and asked to immediately leave the premiss New Zealand workers deserve more
than this.
The workers themselves however have not lost
hope and have decided to use this opportunity to bring the issue of redundancy
pay into the open for the benefit of all workers. The struggle that Highland
Park cinema workers are leading could have lasting implications for New Zealand
workers redundancy pay is taken for granted in many western countries but in
New Zealand it is left up to the employer to decide the amount allocated when a
worker is made redundant. I would argue that only by taking power into their
own hands can workers archive such conditions.
A Solidarity event is planned for the Thursday
the 7th of February at event cinemas Queen Street.
Good morning, how are you?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of used stamps because trough them, you can see pictures about fauna, flora, monuments, landscapes etc. from all the countries. As every day is more and more difficult to get stamps, some years ago I started a new collection in order to get traditional letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately, it is impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are very small countries with very few population, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this, I would ask you one small favor:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from New Zealand? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in New Zealand in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Avenida Juan de la Cierva, 44
28902 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally, I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely
Emilio Fernandez