Labour: "hard to believe" acting PM's denial on Visionstream dispute
Labour’s Clare Curran asked acting prime minister Tony Ryall in Parliament today whether the “Prime Minister, his office or department has had any discussions with Telecom about the damaging Visionstream dispute.”
Mr Ryall denied any communication.
On the party's Red Alert blog, Ms Curran said the acting prime minister’s response was “hard to believe”.
Talking to NBR this afternoon, the Labour communications and IT spokesperson said she knew that the prime minister’s office had been seeking information, but that it could be through informal channels, and not directly from Telecom - providing wiggle room for a parliamentary denial.
Ms Curran’s comments come at a time when industry scuttlebutt hints at a dispute between Telecom’s Chorus and Wholesale divisions about how the transition to owner/operator contracts has been handled.
Ms Curran said she found it curious that Visionstream characterised the owner/operator dispute - which has now escalated to a so-called “broadband ban” - as a private commercial matter when upgrading broadband is one of the government’s big ticket election promises; in fact, one of its few specific pledges.
Telecom has said that its government-madated fibre-to-the-node roadside cabinet project will not suffer as a result of the Visionstream dispute. The company has a contingency plan for long-term industrial action, a spokesman said. Work can continue with non-union contractors, working with staff directly employeed by Chorus, and engineers from suppliers Alcatel Lucent and Eaton Engineering.
In an open letter to Telecom chairman Wayne Boyd Ms Curran writes that the Visionstream dispute is "putting Telecom at risk". The Labour MP maintains that the Chorus-Visionstream dispute could see skilled workers decamp to Australia, where the federal government is about to embark on its $A43 billion fibre-to-the-home project.
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Comments and questions18
john carter has said he s a 110% behind the guys and he said he would approach key.
Telecom are lying once again. Saying that the fibre to the node project won't suffer. Of course it is going to suffer, If you don't have the right guys doing the job how the hell is it going to get done? Pay up Telecom, you guys are killing your own industry. If you can't see that you should NOT be in the position of power that you are. Your days are numbered, It is about time these guys take you down!!!!!! The workers are the ones who make you all the money, how dare you treat these guys like this,Shame on you!!!!!! I dare you to do an honest days work alongside these guys, I bet you will get blisters just looking at a shovel. I'm changing to Telstra first thing tomorrow!!!
This Fibre to the node is a load of crap anyways, The network that it is getting connected to is as old as the 1920s.
you are right s northpower are rolling out their ultra highspeed broadband using ethernet passive optical network that will allow speeds of 1000mb/s and its fibre to the premise not fibre to the node and then into ancient copper cable like telecom.telecom speed 7.68mb/s.if you are upgrading a network then do it properly.
Curran is the foulest of filthy Trots... a true agitatrix for all things chippy, dogmatic and envious. Please starve this CON-municator of the oxygen of publicity :)
Met her in Welly once... made my flesh creep. Real anti-private-anything!!! Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
the comments Posted by Currant Eclaire and Posted by Sophia Bolton:
you are both off topic.
Regardless of your opinion of the author, the issue she is raising is a relevant one and affects your lives as well + 950 auckland and northland telco techs.
Stop playing politics and start listening to your electorate. That is what your job is, not mud slinging in public. Save that for your office parties.
what has this to do with anti private.its to do with a private company being anti people not the people being anti private.if this is your version of private companies then you are one sick puppy.why dont you run along and do some research on this topic and then make your dumbass statement.
It is about a national asset that is the reality.World depression and we let major projects cost us even more, let alone the effecicy of the countrys system. What a mess . During times of historical recession, national assets should be kept SOE type control. Railways, harbours, Power, Airports. Keep control odf NZ assets and keep local Kiwis with jons , including government jobs. Better than the dole or importing labour and losing profits to overseas. Swopping ties for rugby not essential , but sorting out home fiscal busseness IS absolutely critical.
while we are here trying to keep the foreigners out the p.m.s overseas giving the place away.no wonder we have problems with visionstream and all the rest of the foreign bloodsuckers.you'll wake up one morning and there will be a foreigner at your door telling you to move out because [they] bought your mortage and now its foreclosed and then what will you do.look around we are surrounded by them.
VS greatest lie is that they are offering individuals the opportunity to sign a contract to bankruptcy before they talk to other parties. That is not true, the other interested companies have already got their contracts and they are ready to employ technicians on decent contracts as soon as VS gives the word. They are just hoping that some poor unfortunates will buckle under the strain and sign up on owner/operator contracts to subsidize their expenses and drag down the industry as a whole. We can see past that scam. We have the strength of our union and we will stand tall.
I believe that you are right on the button. When VS fails to sign up individual sub contractors they will bring in small contracting companies to do the work. These will be well paying jobs as they are designed to be the strikebusters. When individuals continue to hold out against the owner/operator model the strikebusting companies will have to employ more staff to meet their contractual obligations and VS will have to pay top rates to facilitate recruitment. We have the strength to make it happen.
Hi Clare, how's the lefty business?
Oidville me old China... are you a stoner?
You either are her or have not met her - no way could public knowledge be characterised as mud-slinging. By the way how I am expected to start listening to my electorate - I'm NOT an MP like you you daft commie-unicator xxx
:) xxx
getting out of the telco industry will be the best thing, nothing has
changed. there are plenty of alternates out there, keep cool and many doors will open.
I think in a a few of the area's, mine any way Visionstream are close to getting the numbers to take over. They don't have to get stuck into the pro-active maintanence, just keep the fault volumes down and get the installs done for a few weeks and the people on strike would either see that it works and there aren't many positions left or it will be a big failure. I'm banking on it working.
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