‘Union’s door open’

Press, 21 January 1982, Page 2

‘Union’s door open’

Meat workers would take any action recommended by the management committee of the Meat Workers’ Union

in support of redundant Petone meat workers, according to the union's secretary, Mr A. J. Kennedy. He was in Christchurch yesterday after talks with the Gear Meat employers on Tuesday failed to settle the union’s redundancy claims. Mr Kennedy said that the union had told the management that the union’s door was always open. The companies had so far refused to accede to the union’s asser-

tion that redundancy pay should go to seasonal workers as well as the workers who were employed when -Gear Meat closed the Petone works last November before the killing season had started.

Most sheds have held?: meetings to hear reports on the Gear meat claims, but meat workers at three Hawke's Bay works held their meetings only yesterday, after talks involving the Hawke’s Bay Farmers’ Meat Company. Gear Meat Processing, and the union on

Tuesday failed to find a settlement. About 800 .workers were made redundant, and the Meat Workers’/Unjon is seek- . ing severance pay for 500.