Strike at works hits pig producers

Press, 28 February 1986, Page 2

Strike at works hits pig producers

Pig farmers could not survive a prolonged strike by meat workers, says Mr Denver Glass, a Christchurch pig farmer and deputy chairman of the Pork Industry Board. The strike has closed the two main pig slaughtering plants in Christchurch —• at C. S. Stevens’s Sockburn premises and the Canterbury Frozen Meat Company’s works at Belfast. The two plants together process about 4000 pigs each week.

"During every week the strike continues, 4000 pigs will be produced ready for slaughter in the Christchurch district,” said Mr Glass.

The supply of prime pigs would snowball the longer the strike lasted because a pig farmers’ production "pipeline” ran over a 10-month period. A farmer could not stop producing pigs at short notice.

Turning pigs out to graze on paddocks was not much of an option for farmers because pigs, which had been fattened under cover, could suffer sunstroke or pneumonia, he said.

Pig farmers were most apprehensive about the effect on stock of living in overcrowded accommodation.

Fanners had no wish to be caught in the confrontation between meat workers and export processing companies, said Mr Glass. Because pig meat was destined for the local market, pig farmers would like dispensation to allow the slaughter of piss. 2.