Surprise meat strike angers Govt, farmers

Press, 29 January 1982, Page 1

Surprise meat strike angers Govt, farmers

PA Wellington A one day strike by meat inspectors which halted the country’s freezing industry yesterday was irresponsible, said the Government, employers, and Federated Farmers.

The stoppage, which took, companies by surprise, occurred at the height of the killing season. It came after a meeting at Parliament on Wednesday between the Minister of Agriculture (Mr Maclntyre) and Public Service Association representatives. The association said the meeting was unsatisfactory, and the Government would not change its decision to hand over, some grading work to private companies. The chairman of the Meat Board, Mr Adam Begg, said it was “reprehensible” that valuable and partly processed meat products had been left and that unnecessary suffering had been caused to stock.

“Costly and thoughtless actions, such as this stoppage, affect the whole economy,” he said.

The meat inspectors’ strike stopped killing at all. meatworks except Kokiri on the West Coast.

The Ministry of Agriculture inspectors want to keep the right to. grade meat in 11 works. Apart from those works in the centre of the

dispute, which are mainly in the north of the North Island, the grading is done by company employees, The Government advised the meat inspectors last year that meat grading in the 11 works would be done by company employees to bring them into line with the rest of the country. Meat grading for quality is a task separate from meat inspection, which is a check for hygiene standards. Kokiri is excluded from the action because of the number of distressed animals at the works affected by flooding on the West Coast.

The president of Federated Farmers, Mr- Rob Storey, said that the strike had annoyed farmers. “Companies, farmers, and freezing workers are. angry that the meat inspectors did not have the decency to give specific warning of industrial action, which would have helped to avoid the chaos on plants and farms. “The strike revolves around only 10 men, over a minor demarcation dispute which should' be settled by negotiation rather than industrial action.”

Mr Storey said the decision to hand local meat grading in export works to management was warranted and logical. . Earlier, the P.S.A. president, Mr D. H. Thorp." out-

lined the reasons for the meat inspectors’ stand. He said they could see the possibility of more job losses, they were concerned about the consistency of standards of meat grading, and regarded the loss of meat grading, as a first step in “deskilling” the meat inspectors’ work. The Minister of State Services (Mr Thomson) said the strike would not cause the Government to change its stand, and he urged the inspectors to return to normal work. ■

Mr Thomson said the cause of the dispute was changes in the Meat Act which had led to the transfer of some meat grading from meat inspectors to staff employed by meat companies. He assured the meat inspectors that they would not lose their jobs because of the transfer. Meat inspection was a “growth area” because of increasing stock numbers and more stringent market requirements. The strike was “political rather than industrial,” he said.

Meat inspectors were salaried officers of the Public Service and had significantly more job security than other workers in the meat industry, and the Public Service had never had a history of redundancy, Mr Thomson said.

All South Island works owned by Waitaki N.Z. Refrigerating, the Canterbury Frozen Meat Company, and Kaiapoi-N.C.F., were affected by the strike. The inspectors walked off at various times, but generally about 9 a.m., and will return this morning. The companies had to cancel trucks carrying stock that had already been drafted on farms, and will have to pay meat workers four hours pay under the conditions of the meatworkers award without getting four hours work. Stock at the works is being kept in holding paddocks and will be brought forward today for killing. , The secretary of the Canterbury region of the P.S.A., Mr J. M. McKenzie, said that Canterbury’s 150 meat inspectors had not been doing grading work. The Canterbury inspectors supported the one-day strike because they felt that the transfer of the duties at the 11 works represented an extension of the Government’s policy of “privatisation” of the State services in the same way as other departments put out work for contract.

The Canterbury inspectors voted by secret ballot at the end of last year on the issue of action over the grading dispute.