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Speaker 1: A lot of strikes on at the moment in the unions.

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Speaker 1: While they charge like wounded bulls for their services, don't

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Speaker 1: they some of them up to fifty bucks a fortnight

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Speaker 1: for the privilege. And they claim that they're in it

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Speaker 1: for the workers. Of course they do. They care about them.

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Speaker 1: They want to pay the conditions, They want them to

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Speaker 1: be better. They've worked their way up the union ranks

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Speaker 1: to help those at the bottom, et cetera, et cetera.

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Speaker 1: But then once they get a bit of a profile,

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Speaker 1: they jump ship and where do they go? The Labor Party.

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Speaker 1: They're good mates. And Craig Rennie he fits the bill

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Speaker 1: for this. He flits between the c TU and Grant

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Speaker 1: Robertson's office, and he's been now selected to run in

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Speaker 1: Wellington Bays. Flurfits Simon's who tried but failed to get

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Speaker 1: elected for Labor. She's surely going to try and weasel

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Speaker 1: her way back and onto the list somewhere. Michael Wood,

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Speaker 1: he wants back in. Can't get enough of it. You see,

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Speaker 1: Unions are simply not the premier league for these guys,

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Speaker 1: are they. They're the equivalent of the bench for the

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Speaker 1: Labor Caucus. It's the place you go to keep your

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Speaker 1: profile up while you wait for another turn. It's sucking

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Speaker 1: from the public. Titing particularly wrong with this. But if

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Speaker 1: you're a low wage worker who believes these people are

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Speaker 1: your champions and are in it for you, for negotiating

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Speaker 1: hard with your employees, for doing the mahi, and then

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Speaker 1: you realize, actually they've just been using this as a

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Speaker 1: bit of a flight path to feather their nest at

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Speaker 1: the beehive, wouldn't you be a bit pissed off with that?

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Speaker 1: I would be. Not all union members are lefties after all.

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Speaker 1: Sure many of them are, but most just want a

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Speaker 1: fair deal and a decent spokesperson, not a bunch of

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Speaker 1: political wannabes doing dress ups waiting for their time in

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Speaker 1: the national spotlight. For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge,

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Speaker 1: listen live to News Talk Set B from five am weekdays,

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Speaker 1: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio