New Zealand meat union pushes through pro-company deal at Taylor Preston
By
Tom Peters
15 April 2017
After more than two months of industrial action, meat processing workers in Wellington voted on April 7 on a contract drawn up by the Meat Workers Union (MWU) and the Taylor Preston company. The agreement pushed through by the union bureaucracy further entrenches the poverty wages and insecure conditions at the factory, which has some of the lowest paid workers in New Zealand.
The two-year agreement includes an extra 70 cents an hour for union members, who are about half the 900 workers at the site. Cleaners will receive a slightly bigger pay rise. The increase amounts to roughly $25 a week for a full time worker, around the price of one cup of coffee per day.
Since last May, when the previous contract expired, union members have been paid 30 cents less than non-members.
The deal mirrors the government’s pitiful increase to the minimum wage, which went up 50 cents an hour on April 1, from $15.25 to $15.75. Most Taylor Preston workers, even those with many years’ experience, will still receive little more than the minimum wage.
A worker who attended the April 7 MWU meeting told the World Socialist Web Site it lasted over an hour and a number of workers expressed anger about the agreement. Some questioned why it did not include back-pay from May 2016, which the MWU claimed it was seeking in negotiations. The union officials had no answer, other than to say they could not get a better deal.
Workers received a one-off payment of $125 (before tax) for approving the deal. This will cover only a small fraction of wages lost during the dispute.
The agreement does not include any additional pay for weekend and night shift workers. Workers will be paid time-and-a-half rates only…