New Zealand Meat Workers Union

Thursday, 1 March 2010 at 8:00am

1,700 AFFCO meat workers will strike for a day in solidarity with 750 locked out co-workers from 5am this Friday March 2.

The Talley's owned company locked out over 750 union members indefinetly at five of its eight plants after only 10 hours of face-to-face negotiations, says Meat Worker's Union General Secretary Dave Eastlake.

The lockout notice doesn't apply to 1,000 union members at the affected plants in Moerewa (Northland), Horotiu (Waikato), Feilding, Whanganui and Wairoa or a further 700 members at the company's three other plants in Wiri (Auckland), Rangiuru (Te Puke) and Napier.

Mr Eastlake says this mornings final count of Wednesday's secret strike ballots shows the overwhleming majority of members support the action, which includes a week long work ban on training replacement labour for locked out workers.

"It only took Talley's 10 hours of face-to-face negotiations before they decided to lock out AFFCO workers and cause unncessary suffering to their families and the already struggling rural communities which rely on their incomes," he says. "We regret this further disruption to farmers, but hope this short solidarity strike will get the company to drop the lockout immediately, get our members back to work and get Talley's back into meaningful bargaining."

Mr Eastlake says the dispute is not about pay rises.

"Talley's want the workers to work harder and faster for the same work, with less workers and for less money."

1. The company claims the parties have been bargaining for 18 months. The current collective agreement (contract) expired on 31 December 2011. Under the Employment Relations Act parties can't legally start bargaining until 60 days before the collective agreement expired. The first negotiations began on 30 November 2011.

2. The work ban starts on Saturday 3 March at 5am and ends on Friday 9 March at 9am. Using replacement labour would extend the length of the lockout and the financial burden on workers.

ENDS

© Scoop Media