Media Release
11 November 2002
Peters Tells Food Union To Stop Politicking And Protect Its Members
New Zealand First Leader Rt Hon Winston Peters has told the Service & Food Workers Union to start protecting workers’ jobs and conditions instead of being a stooge for the Government’s
disastrous immigration policies.
This follows the SFWU saying that it will be asking both the Human Rights Commission and the Race Relations office to
take action against him.
Mr Peters referred the trade union movement to an article in the Dominion Post (8 November 2002), in which economists
said that immigration was a significant factor in a rise in the unemployment rate.
“Instead of mouthing the sort of rubbish that their political masters instruct them to, this trade union should be
protecting the jobs of New Zealanders and investigating some of the sweat shops set up by immigrants, and the
casualisation of the industry which it, the union, represents.
“The food industry – particularly fast food outlets - has a sorry history of exploitation of workers, a number of whom
work long, anti-social hours for low wages. Sadly, many of those exploited are, in fact, immigrants.
“If this union spent the same amount of energy looking after these workers that it expends attacking me, its members
would be much better off.”
Mr Peters said Labour Department briefing papers to the Immigration Minister specifically mention immigrant employers
and he suggested that the union’s officials read them.
ENDS