Press release: Meat Workers Union

Thursday 5 April 2012, 4:30pm

Good Friday picket line services, Solidarity from Anglican Church

Laurie (51) and Alexis (45) Nankivell and their eight children didn't expect to spend Good Friday on the picket line.

Mr Nankivell and his eldest son Lee (25), both freezing workers at AFFCO Moerewa, were locked out indefinitley by Talley's five weeks ago.

Mr Nankivell says a local minister will be holding a church service on the picketline at 12 noon tomorrow, Good Friday on State Highway 1. (Anglican Minister Jackie Te Amo will also hold a Good Friday service at 11am on the Wairoa bridge, where workers having been picketting.)

“ Easter is a family time for us and we normally spend it playing sport and touch,” he says. “We never expected to spend Good Friday standing on a picket line, let alone having a church service on the side of State Highway One.”

Mr Nankivell says Talley's has followed through with a threat it made two weeks ago to lock out AFFCO workers over Easter if they continued to strike in support of locked out workers. Workers at the Wiri and Napier AFFCO tanneries will be lockout for the first time.

“ Talley's has split families by only locking out half of them, and now they are locking out 500 more workers simply because they stood with their partners, parents, children and workmates on the picket line. It's a cruel thing to do to our kids, but we aren't going to let Talley's ruin our Easter just so the company can feel like its taught us a lesson and save a few dollars by not paying us time and a half and days in lieu.”

Locked out workers will enter a sports team in the annual Moerewa Easter sports weekend.

Anglican Church sends solidarity message to locked out workers

The Anglican Church's Social Justice Commissioner, the Venerable Dr Anthony Dancer, has extended an Easter greetings to Talley's AFFCO workers, their families and their small rural communities.

“ We are aware of how hard this industrial dispute is hitting you all and want to extend our hand in solidarity to you,” he says. “Easter is a time of hope and new beginnings and it is our strongest desire that the real implications of this will be experienced at this time by members and their employer especially during this period of industrial dispute and lack of continued negotiation.”

The Venerable Dr Dancer says the right of workers to bargain collectively is an important one, both as a principle and a practice, and should not be ignored or disregarded.

“ The worth of any society can only surely be measured in light of how we treat those who work in it. It is time for new beginnings to emerge and new hope to arise this Easter. May the blessings of the risen Christ be with us all this Easter, an may this be a time for new beginnings.”

ENDS

Mr Nankivell's other children are: Kelly (21), Hayden (17), Tyler (14), Dana (10), Ryan (10), Brooke (7) and Bailee (4).

© Scoop Media