Labour mobility

The Viewpoint of Wesley Morgan in your August issue is one of the best articles I have read on the subject of labour mobility.

As the instigator of the RSE programme as it relates to , I have been amazed at how many people have got on to the bandwagon trying to make it out to be something it is not.The attempts to link it to trade deals is the most stupid thing that I have seen. It smacks of the old blackbirding days of trying to make workers into a commodity that can be bargained with.Get this straight...there are growers in and who have crops to be harvested, processed and sold. To achieve this, they need labour, and for periods of time each year they cannot get enough people locally but they are readily available in many other countries.

They are NOT industrial training institutions, they are NOT social welfare institutions, they are NOT aid agencies, they are simply farmers who need to get all their crops harvested at the right time.It is also a situation where every party benefits financially...the farmers, the workers, the growing community, the sending community and the governments. It is wrong to try to associate labour mobility with trade deals because as far as most Pacific Islandsnations are concerned, they stand to lose far more than they will gain. For centuries they have traded what they have and survived without all kinds of trade agreements being foisted on to them now from all directions. These people say that they will pay for the costs of changing what needs to be changed but doesn’t this make them MORE dependent on aid?

Why change it if it ain’t broke? Maybe it would be better if the rest of the world changed to fit in with the smaller nations instead of the other way around, just because they have the muscle to do it.

—Dick Eade ManPower Associates

Why is it that and , who are not true Pacific Islandsnations, have such a prominent say in how Pacific Islandscountries should politically administer themselves? , and also have a Pacific presence, why are they not invited to participate in the Pacific Islands Forum and other activities. and will soon be requesting a say.

 
’s questionable MMP system has a politician who cannot win his own seat and is a senior minister in Helen Clark’s labour government. That person is not even a labour party member. Can anyone work that out? is not without blemishes, ask the United Nations. Let work themselves into a true democracy. Help to achieve this and history might well say avoided continuing coups by their present stance and objectives. Politicians in glass houses should not throw stones.

COOK ISLANDS