Affco has lifted lockout notices on 300 meat workers but they will remain on strike to support colleagues still locked out.
Lockout notices were lifted for 300 workers at eight Affco plants yesterday morning, mainly from the Feilding and Whanganui plants, following two days of mediation.
But the Meat Workers' union said 98 per cent of workers had voted to continue strike action in solidarity with the 450 colleagues still locked out.
"The message from workers today was they want to stand by every family that remains locked out until everyone is back at work,'' union general secretary Dave Eastlake said.
Affco operations manager Rowan Ogg told Radio New Zealand the union had requested a timetable for the return to work of all locked-out workers. That was given to them at the weekend.
"They had a full timetable for the return to work of all those people who were currently locked out and they chose to reject that,'' he said.
Mr Ogg said the continuing strike action was damaging Affco's business.
"We are not being able to service our suppliers to the level we would like to and obviously it is carrying a cost with it as well, but our primary priority is to actually obtain a modern, clear and flexible agreement which will take us into the future, so we're not about to compromise that.''
The two parties have taken their grievances to the Employment Relations Authority, which has referred them to facilitated mediation in a bid to end their long-running dispute.
