The Talley’s owned group companies have launched a fight to destroy the meat workers union at the 8 Affco plants they own in the North Island.
The demands the company put on the table would have cut workers pay, increased the working day, gut union protections, and eliminated seniority rights for staff.
The company’s purpose is simple – to boost production and profits at all costs – including the lives and limbs of their workforce, as well as the environment.
Affco is a major player in the meat industry with a billion dollars in revenue annually and 2800 staff.
1000 members of the meat workers union have voted for an initial two day strike on Monday and Tuesday next week to begin the fight back.
Talley’s are determined. They can smell blood. They have a history for taking on unions and beating them. They did it in their South Island fish processing plants as soon as the anti-union Employment Contracts Act came into force after 1990. There were several court cases that found the company had employed unlawful tactics. In fact one case declared the contract the company had imposed was “harsh and oppressive” – one of the only times I am aware of that the court has done so. The company ignored the courts and carried on with its anti-union campaign until their factories were a union free zone.
They have followed this up with the effective deunionisation of its Open Country Cheese plant acquired in 2007 as part of the Affco takeover in a bitter dispute in 2009.
South Pacific Meats with two plants in the South Island was created at the same time as the Affco takeover. Workers were bullied out of the union after the collective agreement expired in 2011. Wages were cut, the line sped up and seniority gutted. The company has been fined $30,000 and $20,000 for its illegal actions blocking access but it doesn’t care. This is peanuts in the bigger game at play. The Meat Workers Union says a majority of the workforce has rejoined the union secretly and they hope to be able to regain a collective agreement.
In 2012 Talley’s locked out 1300 Affco employees for three months in an attempt to starve them into submission. But by that time union members were a minority of the workforce so the company was able to maintain production. A broad solidarity campaign led to the Maori-owned farming enterprises to threaten to withhold stock until a settlement with the mostly Maori workforce was reached.
Over the last three years ACC has paid out $8 million to nearly 5000 Talley’s employees – that’s more than one injury for every worker employed by Talley’s companies. 1286 Talley’s workers were injured on the job last year alone.
This year Talley’s made extremely strong submissions to opposing any union role in the new health and safety law. Sir Peter Talley said he opposed workers electing health and safety representatives as “unreasonable” and that “unscrupulous unions” could use them to “intentionally damage or destroy a business”.
Here is a sample of cases that have made it into the public arena where Talley’s owned companies have killed and maimed in pusuit of their god – profit. It is obvious why the company does not want stronger health and safety laws.
In February 2008 Talley’s were fined $110,000 for carbon monoxide poisening of 11 workers.
Talleys Frozen Foods Ltd has been fined a total of $110,000 after being found guilty of failing to keep its employees safe. This is one of the highest total fines ever imposed under the Health and Safety in Employment Act.
Talleys Frozen Foods was also ordered to pay reparations of $3000 to each of the 11 poisoning victims, a total of $33,000.
The company was today found guilty of failing to take all practicable steps to ensure that 11 employees were not exposed to carbon monoxide fumes when an LPG forklift was used inside its factory on June 19, 2006.
The prosecution was brought by the Department of Labour under the Health and Safety in Employment Act, and was heard in the Blenheim District Court.
The company was found guilty on all 11 charges laid, and was fined $10,000 on each charge – a total of $110,000.
The fines and reparations reflect the seriousness of the circumstances involved in the case, said Department of Labour Deputy Secretary Andrew Annakin.
“This case is a reminder of the dangers of using LPG forklifts – which can produce potentially fatal carbon monoxide gases – in confined spaces. The Department welcomes the court’s decision and encourages all employers to check the safety of their LPG forklift practices.”
“Employers must ensure that all employees are aware of the hazards and risks associated with their work – in this case it took some time before anyone identified that the symptoms they were having were caused by the forklift and carbon monoxide.”
“All forklift drivers should be adequately trained – the risks of carbon monoxide poisoning should be included in training.”
In January 2010 a SPM worker Henry Richmond Kingi severed part of his thumb at work. The company took no action. The Otago Daily Times reported June 5, 2010, that “The plant has been under the spotlight in recent weeks after the Labour Department said it had investigated 19 incidents of serious harm at the plant, including six workers amputating fingers on bandsaws, in the past 18 months.”
The union successfully brought a private prosecution which concluded that the company had failed to provide a safe working environment. But it took two years for the judgements and inevitable appeals by the company to be completed.
In February 2012 a SPM employees arm was nearly severed by a bandsaw.
A South Pacific Meats worker is recovering at Southland Hospital after his arm was nearly severed by a bandsaw early on Saturday morning.
The man’s wife yesterday said her husband was heavily sedated after two surgeries to repair his arm.
She had been notified of the injury soon after it happened by one of her husband’s co-workers, she said.
The saw had gone through the bone at the elbow and was only attached by tissue, muscle, artery and nerve, she said.
He had gone through two operations to repair the arm on Saturday at Southland Hospital and had a blood transfusion on Sunday.
A third operation was a possibility, she said.
“The hope is that he will regain 95 per cent of movement within 18 months.”
Her husband – who had worked for two seasons at South Pacific Meats – would probably never operate a saw again, she said.
She believed the incident was fatigue-related and management had been told of the issue last week, she said.
In May 2012 a Talley’s employed seafarer Cain Adams, a 33-year old father of five, was killed when he fell nearly 7 meters through a hatch. The company was found at fault and fined.
Talleys Group Ltd has been fined $48,000 and ordered to pay $35,000 in reparation to the family of a crewman killed after falling nearly 7m on the vessel Capt MJ Souza in Nelson in May 2012.
The company was sentenced in Nelson District Court today (29 April 2015) after being found guilty in March of failing to take all practicable steps to ensure the safety of its employees after the death of crewman Cain Adams.
The reparations ordered are in addition to a payment of $54,000 already made to the family by the company.
Mr Adams died while working on the Capt MJ Souza after he stepped onto a hatch on the main deck that rotated, causing him to fall nearly 6.9m through another open hatch in the deck below to the floor of the floor of the vessel’s fish well.
Maritime NZ prosecuted Talleys under section 6 of the Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992 for failing to take all practicable steps to ensure the safety of its employees while at work.
Following a defended hearing, the company was found guilty in the Nelson District Court on 23 March.
At the time of the accident, several contractors were at work on the vessel, with the hatch on the main deck left vented, or partly open, to allow hoses and cables to pass through it.
In his judgement, District Court Judge Ian Mill said the company “either foresaw the risk but did not take all reasonably practical steps in the circumstances of this case or ought to have foreseen the risk and failed to do so”.
“These practical steps were no more than ones already available but not used because the Captain and crew were lulled into a false sense of security from years of using the same practice without incident and always treating a vented hatch as safe,” Judge Mill said.
Maritime NZ Director Keith Manch said lessons must be learned from the accident.
“This was a tragic incident that could have been avoided through very simple measures,” he said.
“Ships are inherently dangerous working environments and employers must ensure all practicable safety steps are taken to protect their employees when they are on the job. All employees have the right to come home safely from work.
“Our thoughts are very much with the family of Cain Adams, for whom this case will have been extremely difficult, but the whole of the maritime sector must heed the lessons of this case.”
The maximum penalty for breaching section 6 of the Health and Safety Act is a fine of $250,000.
In August 2014 a seafarer on a Talley’s owned boat was killed.
In May 2015 the Employment Relations Authority fined Talley’s $6000 for again failing to provide a safe workplace.
Worker David Brine suffered respiratory problems, vomiting, burning eyes and coughed up blood after cleaning a meat chiller which had been chemically fogged at the Malvern freezing works.
He says he felt poisoned within 15 minutes.
Mr Brine told the Employment Relations Authority he and a colleague complained to their supervisors but were told there was nothing wrong with the chemicals – that the smell was safe and they should go back to work.
Talley’s-owned South Pacific Meats was ordered to pay Brine $6000 for “hurt, humiliation and loss of dignity” because it failed to provide a safe workplace.
In June 2015, Talley’s was ordered to pay $15,000 in total to Alister Doran, another SPM employee who had his arm cut open at work and was left to look after himself.
Mr Doran’s arm will never be the same again. It was sliced open while working on the slaughter board at the Malvern freezing works, which is owned by Talley’s.
His bosses failed to rush him for urgent medical treatment, forcing him to get himself to hospital.
“I went to hospital [and] spent three days in hospital getting my arm reconstructed,” says Mr Doran. “It’s got permanent loss of feeling along the top of my arm and I’ve lost 40 percent of strength in my arm.”
An Employment Relations Authority (ERA) ruling recounts Mr Doran’s boss as saying “he was too busy to deal with the matter”.
“I have always believed it was a personal issue, the reason why I wasn’t given transport,” says Mr Doran.
When he took a personal grievance case against the company, they responded by moving him to a lower-ranked role and dropping his pay.
The ERA ruling called it “an element of punishment” and ordered Talley’s owners South Pacific Meats to pay Doran $12,000 in lost wages and compensation.
“They treated us all like scum,” says Mr Doran.
“I wasn’t treated like a human being. I was treated like a number.”
Sir Peter Talley’s attitude to the environment is expressed in a speech in 2011. “We need a new balanced approach to environmentalism, one that recognises sustainable extraction, and one that recognises a higher ranking of mankind, that should rightfully be placed well above the birds and the bees and the flowers and the trees. I, for one, certainly did not fight my way to the top of the food chain to eat vegetables.”
The company also lost a landmark case about equal pay for women. They had refused to allow a woman to become a filleter at their plant. The response of Andrew Talley was to dismiss the decision as a joke. “In any job there are attributes that suggest it will be more likely to be done by either a man or a woman – that doesn’t mean you discriminate,” he said. “There are jobs – pole dancing being one and fish filleting being another – that have a higher predominance of either men or women. The decision is a joke.” The complaint was made in 2002. The 2005 Human Rights Commission ruled in 2005. Talley’s appealed to the High Court which made its judgement in June 2007.
The company was also fined $27,000 in March 2014 for sacking a Christian Pacific worker for wanting to exclude Saturday from compulsory overtime as it violated his churches beliefs. The decision politely suggested the company should provide human rights training to managers.
The labour movement needs to mobilise all its resources to beat back this attack from these reactionary corporate murderers. If they succeed all unionised workplaces will be vulnerable from a determined attack. The Talley’s brand needs to become toxic. No one should buy anything attached to that label. But more importantly pickets of Talley’s sites must be mass pickets with the goal of shutting the plants down on the day of any strike action. Other unions should mobilise members where possible. The communities and Maraes in the towns where the meat plants are located need to be mobilised as well.
It is only by showing real power that the workers who have been pushed out of the union through fear and intimidation can be won back. They are not the enemy but if they cross the picket lines they are helping their enemy as well and it will be rewarded in with overwork, injury and death.
While not as central as it has been in the past the industry remains important to the fortunes of New Zealand capitalism. That is why Talley’s wants to seize control of the wealth producing labour that exists there.
The meat workers union was once the vanguard of the union movement in New Zealand. Strikes by meat workers often established rights that were later won by workers in other industries. Meat workers on occasion challenged government attempts to impose wage controls and beat them back. Again all workers benefited. Not much has been heard of this power in recent times but the workers themselves still have real power when united in struggle. With broad solidarity and support the Affco workers will find ways to liberate the power they need to bring the arrogant Talley’s corporation to its knees.
Donate to Support striking AFFCO/Talleys workers
http://www.nicholasjones.org.uk/…union…/299-telephone-taps-and-secret-surv.
Thanks to jonkey we have a 22nd Century surveillance system. We all know this government is taking orders from outside our shores.
Nevertheless, all of us, not just unions, must stand up for what is right.
Is that really all you can say Helena. Please tell me what a “22nd Century surveillance system” looks like because it must logically include technology that doesn’t exist yet . Although the real question is how did that lizard jonkey get his hands on future technology. I believe he must be taking orders not just from outside our shores but from outside our planet
@SLEEPY: http://sputniknews.com/asia/20150807/1025483008.html
also for you to check:
Prof Charles Watson, scientist, Harvard University, decyphers DNA
and then:
Earth microbes on the moon – NASA Science news: Apollo 12 remembered.
and then:
http://guardianlv.com/2013/11/ufo-sightings-increase-canadian-defense-minister-says-us-must-discuss/
and then ……. Nah.
You step outside the box, Sleepy. 😀
We all know that the title given to Talley was for contributions to National and John Key, not merit.
We all know that John Key dosnt give a damn about NZ workforce,and by giving a title shows his contempt for workers and unions and the public in general.
Talley is an arrogant nasty man.
Key is equally an arrogant nasty man.
Good article Mike thanks,
You are right Elle, regards 22nd plans.
since Key meets at Bilderberg group meetings they are developing a 22nd century model surveillance system with chip technology inserted into the food chain and other entry points like insertion of sound and video transmission capability through appliances and metering systems such as Smart meters now being subsidised by taxpayer and fitted to almost every property in NZ and the rest of the globe.
Called “The Global digital project” is a secretive Bilderberg plan to govern and control all global populations and this is 22nd century plan, as they describe it as is to be possibly fulfilled by 2035-50.
Don’t try locating this plan yet, as Bilderberg do not admit to any policy at all.
Think I found what you are talking about, Cleangreen: https://pathwaytoascension.wordpress.com/2011/08/17/history-of-nesara/:
@Cleangreen Sorry. Wrong link :/
“workers control the means of production”
“workers control the means of production”
There is so much missing from this little snippet.
Until Talleys recognises that most people in NZ are not queuing to be stock killers and processors; that their business depends on skilled and able operators with continuity and corporate understanding; that their reputation as a supplier rests on the shoulders and in the hands of their work force, they’ll continue in this self-defeating way.
If dairy farmers can form a collective then so can meat processors. The pyramid can be flattened to the benefit of many.
As an aside: I wonder which food chain Talley fought his way up? The busy life of a sludge pond, perhaps? ‘No vertebrates were harmed in the achievement of this aspiration’? I wonder…;-P
Thanks Mike for this information, and bigger thanks to the Daily Blog for just being here.
Our Mainstream Media are such a disgrace when it comes to investigative journalism, but we are being naive if we expect them to be informing us of these disgraceful occurrences.
NZ’ers would be shocked with this information, so get it out there. Facebook your friends and family what is happening.
Let Talley’s Affco management know that we will not support their heavy handed employment conditions.
Will we BOYCOTT TALLEY AFFCO PRODUCTS – YOU BET WE WILL until Talley’s ensure that their employees all have a say in their workplace agreement without being threatened by unfair employment practices.
Stand up NZ’ers, there are more of US that THEM, let us provide a decent future for our next generation.
Hi All, I have just been to the Talley’s Facebook page and they have a cute video showing some of their products – makes it nice and easy for us to work out which items to boycott.
LET THEM KNOW WHAT WE ARE DOING – THEY WILL HATE THAT WITH A VENGEANCE.
Let’s support the Talley Affco Workers.
Thanks Mike for this piece. These workers are amazingly courageous because put simply, it’s dangerous to join the union if you work for a Talleys owned company. Day by day, hour by hour, these workers are being threatened that if they go on strike on Monday and Tuesday, they will be forced onto night shift and lower paying jobs. The MWU has litigation coming out our ears : including the first application from a company to end bargaining under the Nat’s recent ERA changes. There will be a big rally at Parliament on Tuesday at 9am. Join us there if you can. Hear from these workers. And yes, if you choose not to buy Talleys products, tell others you are doing so and why. Tweet it. Get the message out. This company is an outlier in the meat industry and in New Zealand and it is ordinary Kiwis that need to pull them into line.
Let’s start a CAMPAIGN OF SHAME!!
Highlight the record of accidents and anti worker incidents and generate some wider public support. SOLIDARITY!
I wish you were right, you are surely dedicated. The fact is the average office workers, far outnumbering the coal face manual labourers, do not give a shit, that is one part of the problem. Divide and rule has destroyed the social fabric of Nz society, I see and feel it every day. Every one to their own, and hence we also have many underpaid immigrant workers all over the show, doing jobs that few born and bred Kiwis would do.
This is all part of the problem, to hope there will be solidarity, that is a pipe dream of the past. You have to work very hard to get any sympathy from various groups in society now, and the crap media we have, is doing all to assist the rotten government and the elite to keep us all divided, or pre-occupied with frowning on some criminals and other problematic persons, as they are presented on the headline news.
Real issues are no longer discussed, as that is what the top guys and girls dislike. NO challenge to the system is allowed, full stop, I wish that more would get it, as I fear, by peaceful means nothing will change in this society.
I agree that largely these issues slip under the radar, and with your assessment of the attitudes within our shattered society. But we have to have hope. In the case of zero hour contracts, widespread disgust with the practice was generated as a result of some well framed and well presented publicity. Most people aren’t unreasonable once they are aware of a glaring injustice done to a group of their fellow citizens. It is just that there are now so many issues clamouring for attention, because so much of what used to be is now broken.
I tend to agree with you Mike.
I’ve long claimed that neolib capitalism is simply law of the jungle.
They define the rules so we should respond in kind.
This problem could easily be alleviated with two very low cost items no larger than, say, 9mm.
You can talk all you want but in this environment talk becomes meaningless.
Actions speak louder…
This all sounds nice, but the problem with the system in this country is, they change the tune and the framework and bits of the rules all the time, while they are going. That is the government, it happens in all departments and Ministries, and as soon as some protests or dissent appears, as soon as a sensitive issue raising OIA request goes in, they sit down in their backrooms, tweak the system, or get their public relations experts out, to calm the waves, to allay any fears, to state all is ok, we are looking after this.
This is the way they go while they operate system, and workers are also shafted all the time, as employers apply the same methods. Mike will know this, there is a disagreement, maybe a strike, they then suddenly say, let us talk and sit down over a cuppa, and they make some vague promises, and once the ink has barely dried on some agreement, they apply the next technique, that is exploit legal and other loopholes to shaft workers again.
I observe this as being part of the Anglo Saxon style capitalist approach, that is popular in the US and also now in the UK, and certainly here, where you constantly get government and employers and business do all to spin the good news, to send messages out, that they are listening, and will work on stuff. In honesty though, they do none of what they say, all the time they look for the next way out, for them, to rid themselves of obligations, hence they love a flexible approach.
The Kiwi number eight wire mentality suits them well, it serves the experts, making the average Joe Blog believe, he or she is listened to, so that all will be done well and within the law. The truth is galaxies away, it does never allow for this to happen.
I witness this all over the place, with the present central government and what it does, with Auckland Council and their two faced consultations, with also employers and business. Sadly most Kiwis that are the ordinary workers and so, they are so used to this flow of things, that nothing is constant, stable or reliable, they do not understand that to change things, you need to be totally firm, uncompromising and assertive, yes to attack the status quo. As long as you are all too liberal, too forgiving, too flexible and too tolerant, nothing will change. The forces that run the show will con, lie to you, exploit your good faith and shaft you.
So perhaps give that some thought.
Here’s a piece of news for good measure.
The end-of-the-world is starting in September…….well for those who have lined their pockets at the expense of the “commoners” it will certainly seem like the end of their world.
NESARA rolls out in September. For us commoners it is the Time of Abundance.
Off you go, Sir Tally-ho. 😀
For those who do not know about NESARA (National Economic Security and Reform Act) the following gives an explanation (truth really is stranger than fiction):
http://www.ashtarontheroad.com/history-of-nesara.html
Starts September!!
Sad to hear things like this, i was a former affco worker before all this and things were fair and sustainable at that time, employers like Talleys have a poor record because they choose to play the odds like gamblers except its with people and their well being the perspective from the other side of the fence is inexcusable its easier to just do things properly and more cost effective, many people that hear about this will choose to divest in the product I know I will, only problem with that is the poor people working there also lose out, many corporates have lost their compassion on there journey for profit and glory, however many corporates have also learned that people create profit and do whats right to create a balanced work environment to sustain this, Talleys should learn from this, to all of you stand in the gap, unions are in actual fact better to have working with corporates to create balance, not having some sort of collective influence leaves us open for dangerous risk takers and irresponsible dreamers these people are human and not as smart as one would think dont be a fence sitter, if there is a wealthy person out there involved in this type of business please acquire talleys and put them to rest then do whats right and the workers will give loyalty and dedication in a sustainable manner which will in turn create the profit margins sort after to be a true business venture, the most important and valuable thing is people a wise man once told me.
[…] Small acts of civil disobedience like this are an appropriate response to the vicious attacks on workers’ rights mounted by the infamous Talley brothers described in this excellent blog post by Mike Treen. […]
[…] Small acts of civil disobedience like this are an appropriate response to the vicious attacks on workers’ rights mounted by the infamous Talley brothers described in this excellent blog post by Mike Treen. […]
From an AFFCO Union Member’s wife
This is what I know . . .
Over 18 months ago AFFCO/Talleys Meat Workers Union members asked for their existing collective contract to roll over along with a meagre 1.5 % pay increase. Talleys refused to sign off the Collective Employment Contract and fucked around until their buddies in the National government passed a new law allowing them to walk away from negotiations. Although it’s hardly negotiations when you are only asking to be able to carry on as is.
Union members (2012 Lock Out survivors and brave new souls) knew they were in for a shit time this year and fully expect to be forced on to Individual Contracts or find themselves without a job.
My husband started working for AFFCO Moerewa at the age of 18 and he’s been there for 22 years. He’s one of the “old hands” at the plant, all of whom are union members. They go to work every day, they work hard and they take a home a decent enough wage to keep their whanau in warm homes, kai on the table and plenty of school and sport club fundraising ticking over. See that’s the thing about this particular crew, they are also our rugby coaches, club captains, club volunteers, school board members, kohanga helpers, marae helpers, family farm helpers, kai moana gatherers, the ones who are always called to cut up beef for tangi, the ones who collect the kids and mokopuna from the school gates. They are not just loving, dedicated whanau members, they are “community” members as well in every sense of the word. And all they want is to work and to not have any of their rights as workers eroded each year.
This weekend delegates were summoned to Auckland by Talleys in a last ditch effort to prevent the strike and march on parliament that was to occur today and tomorrow. The only catch was that union officials were prevented from attending. So the same hard working whanau members accepted the burden of going up against the corporations and making the best decision on behalf of their mates back home.
And they did this, talks took place, negotiations happened and they came home to tell their work mates the strike was called off. The general feeling was one of relief along with the knowledge that this was not over but a reprieve for now. Like I said, this was a huge burden for the delegates and they did right by their mates.
Within hours AFFCO Moerewa phoned each union member to tell them they are now on night shift. A night shift that has been hastily set up for the sole purpose of demoralising and destabilising union members. A night shift that union members were threatened with when they declared they would strike. A night shift that takes seasoned workers away from their families every night and one that makes their community work a whole lot harder. Not impossible because they will carry on but just a whole lot harder on them and their whanau. A night shift that sees many mums now doing sports runs, tea time crazy, homework, bath and bed time on their own. A night shift that takes the fight down to the kids who won’t see their dad’s tonight.
So to Talleys and AFFCO Moerewa – I hope it rains and the farmers hold on to their cows for the duration of your night shift you cold hearted arseholes.
Kia kaha union whanau, stay strong!!
PS After calling off the strike in good faith union members were told on Monday afternoon that there is no night shift until Wednesday. The day shift continues to run as per normal staffed by those on IEC’s. Begs the question, when is a lock out not a lock out?
From an AFFCO Union Member’s wife
This is what I know . . .
Over 18 months ago AFFCO/Talleys Meat Workers Union members asked for their existing collective contract to roll over along with a meagre 1.5 % pay increase. Talleys refused to sign off the Collective Employment Contract and stalled until their buddies in the National government passed a new law allowing them to walk away from negotiations. Although it’s hardly negotiations when you are only asking to be able to carry on as is.
Union members (2012 Lock Out survivors and brave new souls) knew they were in for hard time this year and fully expect to be forced on to Individual Contracts or find themselves without a job.
My husband started working for AFFCO Moerewa at the age of 18 and he’s been there for 22 years. He’s one of the “old hands” at the plant, all of whom are union members. They go to work every day, they work hard and they take a home a decent enough wage to keep their whanau in warm homes, kai on the table and plenty of school and sport club fundraising ticking over. See that’s the thing about this particular crew, they are also our rugby coaches, club captains, club volunteers, school board members, kohanga helpers, marae helpers, family farm helpers, kai moana gatherers, the ones who are always called to cut up beef for tangi, the ones who collect the kids and mokopuna from the school gates. They are not just loving, dedicated whanau members, they are “community” members as well in every sense of the word. And all they want is to work and to not have any of their rights as workers eroded each year.
This weekend delegates were summoned to Auckland by Talleys in a last ditch effort to prevent the strike and march on parliament that was to occur today and tomorrow. The only catch was that union officials were prevented from attending. So the same hard working whanau members accepted the burden of going up against the corporations and making the best decision on behalf of their mates back home.
And they did this, talks took place, negotiations happened and they came home to tell their work mates the strike was called off. The general feeling was one of relief along with the knowledge that this was not over but a reprieve for now. Like I said, this was a huge burden for the delegates and they did right by their mates.
Within hours AFFCO Moerewa phoned each union member to tell them they are now on night shift. A night shift that has been hastily set up for the sole purpose of demoralising and destabilising union members. A night shift that union members were threatened with when they declared they would strike. A night shift that takes seasoned workers away from their families every night and one that makes their community work a whole lot harder. Not impossible because they will carry on but just a whole lot harder on them and their whanau. A night shift that sees many mums now doing sports runs, tea time crazy, homework, bath and bed time on their own. A night shift that takes the fight down to the kids who won’t see their dad’s tonight.
Kia kaha union whanau, stay strong!! PS Since writing this yesterday morning AFFCO Moerewa decided there would be no work at all for all union members until Wednesday night shift. Day shift continues as normal for those on individual contracts. Smells like an illegal lock out to me.
Mike
You really show why the days of unions and boofheadfs like you , are well past
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