Meat workers ‘shortsighted’

Press, 19 February 1983, Page 11

Meat workers ‘shortsighted’

PA Wellington Freezing workers at Oringi and Ocean Beach works are extremely shortsighted in striking at an industry which cannot absorb closings and cost increases, according to the president of Federated Farmers. Mr W. R. Storey. Heavy losses suffered by the Meat Board in the last year indicated that the market would not provide a margin of profit for farmers in some commodities and if the situation worsened the amount of stock for slaughter would decline. Mr Storey said. “The majority of freezing workers have realised that the meat industry is at a critical stage and is not in a position to absorb closings and further cost increases." he said.

Closings at Patea and Southdown showed there was no guarantee that works

could continue to operate in changing conditions and bearing the high cost of industrial disputes, he said. "Neither a new works like Oringi or an old works like Ocean Beach is in any way immune from closing if its operation becomes uneconomic," Mr Storey said. There would be no public sympathy for workers out of a job because they had forced a works to close. Mr Storey urged workers and the unions to exercise restraint and to use the provisions of their award and industrial legislation to air grievances without striking. “If they do not act in this way not only will the nation lose — our meat loses its competitive advantage in international markets — but workers, their families, and the communities within which the works are located could suffer seriously,” Mr Storey said.