Affco workers vote to strike after meat company became first to apply under new bargaining laws
By Fiona Rotherham
Aug. 4 (BusinessDesk) - About one thousand meatworkers at eight Affco plants in the North Island have voted to strike
for two days next week after the Talley's-owned company became the first under the government’s new employment law to
apply for an end to bargaining.
The government’s amendments to the Employment Relations Act, introduced in March this year, let firms opt out of
multi-employer agreements and removed the duty under good faith bargaining for both sides to reach agreement. Affco
general manager Rowan Hogg said it had applied to the Employment Relations Authority for an end to the 18 months of
bargaining on the collective agreement with the NZ Meat Workers Union after "reaching the stage where there is such a
lack of trust and breakdown in the relationship that it is inappropriate to continue to endeavour to reach an
agreement".
A court-ordered mediation on the collective agreement ended last week after the company walked away, the union said, and
workers have voted to strike next Monday and Tuesday even though it's in the middle of the bobby calf season. The union
says at least 8 busloads of meatworkers will turn up to Parliament next Tuesday to stage a protest against the company's
use of the new employment laws.
The action follows the union's June bid in the Employment Court for an interim injunction against Affco claiming it was
locking out 190 workers at its Rangiuru plant who refused to sign individual contracts rather than the collective
agreement. Chief Employment Court Judge Graeme Colgan dismissed the injunction but ordered immediate mediation.
Union national secretary Graham Cooke said Affco workers who predicted the company would be the first to take advantage
of the new employment laws have proven to be right.
“Talley’s is an outlier in the meat industry in the way it deals with employment relations and health and safety. The
public haven’t forgotten their cruel lockout in 2012, which lasted 84 days and caused real hardship to families in poor
communities,” he said.
Cooke claimed during the current bargaining round the company had added new demands to reduce job security, threatened
the union and others with legal action, and bullied staff at work. He said during the mediation Affco had said it wanted
to get rid of seniority, something common in the industry, which gives long-time staffers priority for work when the
season starts.
“It seems they were just waiting for the law to change so they could walk away.
If they can’t be trusted to treat their workers fairly and safely at work, how can the public trust their brand?”, Cooke
said.
Hogg refuted the claim saying Affco was ambivalent about whether workers were on individual or collective agreements but
in the face of declining stock numbers and industry over-capacity, the company needed to negotiate new contracts that
reflected the competitive industry while still giving workers "better earnings and a longer season".
Cooke alerted Federated Farmers and animal welfare about the potential for bobby calves waiting in pens to be
slaughtered so farmers can potentially make alternative plans during the strike.
Hogg said 75 percent of the workers at the plants were non-union and would be turning up to work next Monday. He
questioned the union's claim that 1,000 workers were likely to strike but refused on the grounds of commercial
confidentiality to say how many staff Affco had at the eight North Island plants.
Council of Trade Unions boss Helen Kelly was sent a letter last week by a lawyer understood to be acting for Talley's
which threatened legal action against her and the CTU if they continued in “the dissemination of misleading information
designed to cause economic harm to the company”. Affco warned that it had been advised Kelly planned to lead a protest
and/or picketing of Affco and Talley’s plants and perhaps customers, which it said would cause economic loss and
reputational demand and was unlawful.
Kelly response was this post on Twitter yesterday “Oh I am so scared. I won’t be buying Talley's products until they
settle a collective agreement with Affco workers.”
(BusinessDesk)