Meat works suspend 18,000 over strike

Press, 12 February 1986, Page 1

Meat works suspend 18,000 over strike

Most freezing works throughout New Zealand have closed because of a strike by shift engineers, and about 18,000 workers have been suspended.

Up to 30 of New Zealand’s 39 bigger freezing works will be closed by today. The remaining nine are either fully automated or management staff are doing the job usually done by shift engineers. The executive director of the Meat Industry Association, Mr Peter Blomfield, said that those workers remaining in plants which had closed were cleaning up and would be suspended as the job was done. It was significant that some workers were working with non-union labour, particularly in Hawke’s Bay, he said. “The fact that some meat workers were still working indicated that the real message on the critical state of the industry

and its inability to pay ’ high wage increases were r getting through,” said Mr : Blomfield. [ The secretary of the ; Institute of Marine and s Power Engineers, Mr Glenn Harris, said he did not know of any meat f workers working with non-union labour. > Danger existed where i management staff were I maintaining equipment I normally run by engin- ; eers, he said. Running ammonia plants required t experience which some management staff did not , have and this could be i potentially lethal, said Mr Harris. i Any decision by the I shift engineers to continue : their strike would be influenced by talks on Fri- ’ day with other meat in-

dustry union representatives, he said. The dispute centres on the engineer’s claim for a wage increase of 18.5 per cent. The employers’ $25 a week offer amounted to only a 5 per cent increase over a year, said Mr Harris. More than 3000 workers have been suspended by the three biggest companies with plants in Canterbury. Meat left in the works is safely refrigerated and some is still being loaded out for retailers in Canterbury. > Ashley Meat Processors, Ltd, which is semiautomated and does not employ shift engineers, will continue killing as normal.