Meat Workers’ Union starts proceedings in Labour Court

Press, 25 September 1987, Page 3

Meat Workers’ Union starts proceedings in Labour Court

By

RICHARD CRESSWELL,

Industrial reporter

The Meat Workers’ Union yesterday began proceedings in the Labour Court in an attempt to get the Fortex Group to honour an agreement between the union and the company. Fortex plans to take on 70 night-shift workers at its Seafield lamb and deer slaughtering plant near Ashburton on October 5, without the agreement of the Meat Workers’ Union. There is no agreement between the parties over the employment of nightshift slaughterboard workers. The assistant general secretary of the Meat Workers’ Union, Mr Tiny Kirk, said the union had issued proceedings yesterday to get the company to honour the agreement. Mr Kirk said the union was advising all those contemplating taking up the new shiftwork to stay in their present employment or positions until the matter was sorted out.

The union believed it was right and the company was in the wrong. An agreement on shiftwork slaughtering had to be made before the workers could be taken on, he said.

Shift slaughter work was a new concept and if introduced at the plant would be a first for New Zealand.

“To my knowledge there is no shift slaughtering anywhere else, under either the Meat Workers’ Union or the Auckland Freezing Workers’ Union.” Both unions had a policy against shift slaughtering, but there was an agreement on shift lamb-cutting. He said the company’s plans were illtimed and that it should wait until the industry’s future was more certain. The union had an obligation to its workers and if the extra work was to be created the union would be looking at placing redundant meat workers in the new positions. “We are asking Fortex to take into consideration the likely cuts in the industry first,” he said. Fortex management had made a fuss about demands by the union for six weeks holiday at double pay for the new shift workers, but emphasised they would negotiate such proposals.

“To date there has been only two hours of talks but a lot of discussion.”

The company did not seem to be in a negotiating mood. The managing director of Fortex, Mr Graeme Thompson, said the company had screened 600 applicants for the 70 jobs and selected them, but they had not yet been notified. The company would hold back until the Labour Court decision was made.

He said the documents lodged by the union with the Court made no mention of the question of wages and conditions for the shift workers, contrary to earlier statements by the union. The Labour Court appeared to be being asked to stop the shift going ahead. “The issues of negotiations over wages and conditions appears to be another matter,” he said. He hoped there would be further negotiation, because there had not been an opportunity to sit down seriously with the union.

Mr Thompson also rejected suggestions by the union that the national union had not been meddling in branch union affairs.

The union had claimed new agreements such as that sought for the new shift workers should be negotiated at national level, and Mr Thompson had alleged the national union had been meddling in branch union affairs by preventing the company negotiating the deal with the Canterbury branch. Mr Thompson said the union had not previously stuck to the claim, and an agreement for shift work for lamb cutting and another in the deer department had been made with the Canterbury branch.

It was “amazing” that the industry should wait for the pleasure of the union movement before taking on the new jobs.

The need for improvements in processing methods were long overdue, and there might be changes in the South Island freezing industry. He said changes such as shift work would mean employing more people not less because the product would be further processed. If the planned night shift came on 80 per cent of Seafield’s kill would be further processed.