Strike at fish plant

Press, 29 March 1984, Page 1

Strike at fish plant

Nelson reporter

Sealord Products. Ltd, of Nelson. Australasia's largest fish-processing factory, was idle yesterday after 600 workers walked off in protest against the $8 general wage order. The 400 members of the United Food and Chemical Workers' Union decided to walk out at 2 p.m. after a stop-work meeting. All but 10 members approved of what is virtually a 24-hour strike.

Mr Alex Pattison, an assistant secretary of the Christchurch office of the processors’ union, said last evening that he had approached the company on Tuesday afternoon with the workers’ concerns — mainly about remuneration. The company's attitude had been that the Wage Freeze Regulations prohibited action on the remuneration questions. “The company was prepared to talk about any other issues that it could do something about, but nothing about money," he said.

The general manager of Sealord, Mr Graham France, said he had returned from Wellington to learn that his executive staff were working at the factory “trying to put right what was left at two o’clock.”

“They just walked off. You can imagine what a fish-processing plant is like when 450 people just walk out,” he said.