Locked out mum flies to UK to start international campaign

A locked out single mother of eight will fly to London tomorrow to ask for help from Britain and Ireland’s largest union.

ANZCO Foods locked out 100 workers from their CMP Rangitikei sheep processing plant on October 19 for refusing to accept up to 20% pay cuts, shift changes and cuts in allowances.

The New Zealand Meat Workers Union is escalating pressure on the company as the dispute goes into its second month.

Amanda Chase, 44, a small town mum with eight children aged 8 to 25, has been invited to speak at Unite the Union’s national meat workers committee conference.

“It’s tough for my kids but it would have been worse if I hadn’t been a budget services manager before,” she says. “Because of my work in budgeting

I know how hard the company’s cuts will hurt people in the long term – that’s why I’m out the gate.”

Mrs Chase will be seeking support for a campaign to put pressure on the up-market British supermarket chain Waitrose, a major customer of CMP Rangitikei.

The 1.5 million-strong Unite has a history of successfully campaigning for ethics and employment standards in the British supermarket supply chain.

ANZCO Foods have asked for mediation on Wednesday 23 November.

ENDS
NOTES
• ANZCO Foods is a multinational beef and lamb exporter which started in New Zealand and now has assets of $500 million and revenues exceeding $1.2 billion.
• ANZCO Foods founder and chairman Graeme Harrison was knighted in this year’s Queen’s Birthday honours and was the honoured businessman at last week’s Wellingtonian of the Year.
• Waitrose is the sixth largest supermarket in UK and prides itself on its added value products. Customers can scan lamb products to see where the lamb is born and where it was processed.
• Workers have agreed to sacrifice 10% of their pay provided. This is not the first time workers have agreed to help out the company, they accepted below industry standard wages and a two year wage freeze when the plant first opened.

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