Letter No.60
19 May, 1997

2 May 1997

Paulo Freire dies in Sao Paulo, Brazil, aged 75. A leader in literacy training with Brazilian peasants, and author of "Pedagogy of the Oppressed", he has been a source of inspiration to community activists and educationalists the world over.

3 May 1997

A Christchurch public meeting called over the government's work-for-the-dole scheme unanimously votes to oppose the compulsory nature of the scheme.

Rent on some state houses in Auckland could rise by as much as $100 a week when a rent freeze is lifted on July 1st.

4 May 1997

The official US unemployment rate is down to 4.9% the lowest for 23 years.

Up to 100 new jobs will be created in Mosgiel, near Dunedin, as a result of a new manufacturing venture by Alliance Textiles and Coats Patons.

5 May 1997

North Health is seeking a ruling from the High Court to protect the jobs of Auckland-trained doctors from the many overseas doctors who come to Auckland looking for work.

6 May 1997

Microsoft has announced Skills 2000, a multi-million dollar initiative to be carried out globally over the next two years to address the gap between the number of open jobs in the computing industry and the lack of skilled professionals to fill them.

7 May 1997

James Hardie Building Products announces the closure of its Avondale bathroom products factory, with the loss of 42 jobs.

8 May 1997

Developers of a coal export jetty at Granity on the West Coast say it could lead to 1,820 jobs and inject an extra $18.8m into the regional economy.

Christian Aid in Britain releases a report, A Sporting Chance, which reveals that many leading brands of soccer balls are made by child labourers in India, working for as little as 4 cents an hour. The report says there may be up to 30,000 children working in India's sports goods industries.

9 May 1997

In Britain, Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown moves to hand over control of interest rates to an independent Bank of England. He says that New Zealand's Reserve Bank Act would serve as a model for the new relationship with the bank.

The Business Roundtable calls for producer boards to be wound up over the next two years. It wants their assets sold and distributed to levy payers.

PM Jim Bolger calls for Labour Day to be replaced by a New Zealand Day.

10 May 1997

Australians spend three times more per capita on gambling than any other nation on earth. Collectively they spend more on gambling than they do on food.

11 May 1997

Oprah Winfrey, America's highest-paid entertainer, has abandoned her Chicago project designed to lift some families out of the abyss of poverty. When she started her support of the Families for a Better Life foundation, she announced: "I want to destroy the welfare mentality." In getting out of the project last month, her comments were: "I felt myself turning into government. I spent nearly a million dollars, most of it going in development and administrative costs ..."

12 May 1997

The Waipareira Trust and the Manukau Urban Maori Authority are accusing a Maori-owned fishing company of racism. Moana Pacific is accused of refusing jobs and contracts to Maori who do not have the backing of their iwi. They say this is part of the "belligerence, vindictiveness, difficulty and prejudice" that urban Maori have to deal with.

13 May 1997

State Insurance is to introduce a `flatter' management structure, with the loss of 85 jobs.

Treasurer Winston Peters says that under his retirement scheme, women will have their savings topped up to compensate for the lower incomes that they earn over their lifetimes.

14 May 1997

Heinz-Wattie in Gisborne announces that it will transfer its petfood and prepared foods operations to Hastings, with the loss of 172 jobs. For Gisborne, it is the second big processing closure in less than a year, after tomato processor Cedenco moved operations to Australia.

The NZ Employment Service says that only 14 beneficiaries or their spouses have been warned they must register themselves as looking for work since controversial work-test rules came into force last month. No benefits have been cut yet.

Parliament throws out a private member's bill introduced by Mike Moore designed to crack down on gangs.

Telecom's profits were knocked down by nearly 20% to $581.4m in the year to March. Telecom plans unspecified but "significant" redundancies in a cost-cutting programme.

15 May 1997

Welfare groups and trade unions protest outside parliament against the government's plans for work-for-the-dole schemes. The protest group Coalition Against Workfare includes the Wellington People's Resource Centre, Downtown Community Ministry, the Trade Union Federation and the Service Workers Union.

Thousands of Australian steel workers down tools in protest against plans to close the country's oldest steel-making plant at Newcastle.