The Strike at Taylor Preston’s Wellington plant
7th Feb 06
The Taylor Preston meat company is likely to be forced to stop processing at its Wellington plant for three days this week, as freezing workers go on strike over pay and conditions.
Workers have placed a large notice in the Dominion Post today (Tuesday), explaining their plight and asking the public to support their case. The notices are signed by 14 workers from the Taylor Preston plant.
The freezing workers at Taylor Preston are paid substantially less than workers at other New Zealand freezing works, who get between 20 and 50 percent more in their pockets. In many cases workers at Taylor Preston’s plant are paid only $9.50 per hour: This is the lowest adult rate that can be paid legally in New Zealand.
Their union, the Meat Workers and Related Trades Union, says the Taylor Preston workers have been pushed too far. “They have run out of patience and goodwill after getting knocked back again and again on requests for higher pay and better working conditions, and after a series of incidents in which Taylor Preston management repeatedly tried to block union involvement.”
Union organiser Roger Middlemass says one indication of the incredible small mindedness of the company is its refusal to supply anything but boiling water for the workers’meal and tea breaks. He says only management get free milk, tea, coffee, Milo and sugar.
“We’re talking about people who work day after day, and at all hours of the day, on continuous process lines that never stop – in freezers, in heat, in blood, guts and filth. Compare this with the life enjoyed by the four millionaires who own the works, including the Taylor family. They’re worth $57 million, according to the National Business Review. But they can’t afford to provide a bit of milk and sugar.”
The workers are staging pickets outside the Taylor Preston works in Ngauranga Gorge on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week. They’re also asking the public to support them by not buying meat at the A.E. Preston butchers in Wellington, Porirua and Palmerston North that are supplied by the Wellington plant.
Roger Middlemass says these butchers sell good meat because the Taylor Preston workers know their job. “But it’s cheap meat because the wages of these same workers are so low.
He says people can also support the cause by sending an email message to Taylor Preston management at office@tpl.co.nz. “They can also encourage the workers on the picket line in Ngauranga Gorge by tooting their horns as they drive past on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.”
Contact:
Roger Middlemass
Meat Workers and related Trades Union of Aotearoa
Mobile number 0274 721 271
O6 355 5415
meat.unionpn@xtra.co.nz
Related
Comments
Re: The Strike at Taylor Preston’s Wellington plant
yes i remember this article my dad was protesting to i was woundering if anything has changed since then
Re: The Strike at Taylor Preston’s Wellington plant
i think that we should get payed more at least $14.00 after tax minimum rate!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!