Meat workers aim to cut out job insecurity

The New Zealand Meat Workers Union has called for ''jobs that count'' in the industry.


The union yesterday launched a campaign to end job insecurity and create pay security for meat workers.

''More than 20,000 meat workers provide their labour for this critical NZ export industry, yet their job security is on more shaky ground than ever,'' national secretary Graham Cooke said.

''Long-established seniority provisions that enabled loyal, reliable, dependable and skilled workers to return to work after each season are being undermined by some companies.''

The campaign comes after the Employment Relations Authority found Silver Fern Farms made more than 100 Dunedin seasonal meat workers redundant when no lambs were offered for processing at Silverstream during its usual working season, between about December last year and June this year.

''Meat workers face it all,'' Mr Cooke said.

''Seasonal work, dangerous jobs, casual and zero-hours contracts, and increasing pressure on workers to join non-union individual agreements.

''As if that's not enough, the Government's recent employment law changes mean meat workers will face a tougher time settling collective agreements and earning a decent living.''

Campaign organiser Darien Fenton said the campaign would ''make sure workers in this industry have a voice''.

''We all know when the meat works doesn't go well, the community suffers.''

The campaign was launched in Palmerston North yesterday and Ms Fenton said she would meet more meat workers in Invercargill tomorrow.

Further meetings would take place next year but dates and locations had not been settled. The union wanted to bring industry players into the discussion, including farmers and the Meat Industry Excellence group.

''There's an absence of a workers' voice in the changes happening in the meat industry at the moment,'' Ms Fenton, a former Labour MP, said.

The union hoped to present a petition to Parliament calling for a change to workers' conditions and rights in the industry.

timothy.brown@odt.co.nz

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