Time For Fair Deal For Taylor Preston Workers

Why only a 3 day strike?

Should be indefinite until the workers demands are met. Setting time limits in advance is a trick used by the union bureaucrats to flex the workers muscle only to withdraw it when THEY say so.

Why is the union asking supporters to send emails to the boss and only honk their horns as they drive past? Because they don't want the strike to get out of their control.

The strike should be conducted by a strike committee made up of the rank and file members of the union and not the officials of the union.

It seems that the Meat Workers Union and the CTU are fixated on the millionaire owners being able to afford to pay a 'fair' wage.

What about bosses that claim poverty? In the US bankruptcy is the no 1 tactic to destroy the unions and smash the workers.

Strikers should be demanding a living wage, not what the boss can afford since it is the workers who produce the wealth in the first place. What is 'fair' about getting back a small share of what you produce in the first place under such rotten conditions?

What are the workers demands?

We hear that they have rejected a 10% offer over three years. And that they are paid between 20% and 50% less than other meatworkers.

What about 50% now and stay out till they pay out!

CTU should call an immediate campaign for all unions to contribute to a strike fund to support the strikers and to join their picket so that the plant is shut down and stays shut down.

But unionists in Wellington should not wait for the CTU to do that but get as many of their workmates as they can onto the picketline.

Newly unionised? Boss anti-union?

All the more reason for the rank and file to control it on their own agenda, calling on CTU to run the strike fund and for all unionists to turn up to build a mass picket to keep the scabs out. It they can do that then its possible to maintain an indefinite strike. We don't leave it to the bureaucrats to 'blood' workers on a picket line never build properly to stop scabs.

Weve been told many times that the bureaus want to 'test' the resolve of workers on 'pretend' pickets, as if its the workers resolve that is the problem and not the union leadership. But they do it in such a way that the workers become passive picket fodder on the bureaucrats agenda.

The Meat Workers seem to be following the lead of the EPMU, with stagemanaged short strikes to pressure public opinion against a 'bad' boss.

Does anyone know what the actual demands of the workers are and if the boss came back with anything new?

Press Release about strike

Embargoed until 0600 Tuesday February 7

Strike at Taylor Preston’s Wellington plant

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.

The 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