Mana Party leader Hone Harawira has called on New Zealanders to boycott Talley's products, to support workers locked out of the company's Affco meatworks plants during industrial action.
"A temporary hit on the profits of Talley's and Affco is likely to send a bigger signal than just protesting outside theplants," Mr Harawira told Radio New Zealand this morning.
In the latest move to ramp up the protest action against Affco, Mr Harawira said the move to boycott Talley's products would sent a clear message to Affco.
"I think it's a way of sending a signal to the Talley's family, who have $300 million, and the spokesperson has said that getting rid of the unions is a good idea in the meatwork industry," he said.
Mr Harawira said the move to choose alternatives to Talley's products was the best way to support fair wage bargaining.
"They are going after workers for no issue of productivity and I think workers and New Zealanders generally just want a bit of fair play."
"I'm hoping people will choose alternatives for the next few weeks until Talley realise how serious New Zealanders are about fair wage bargaining," he said.
He said the chairman of Ngapuhi, Sonny Tau, had also written to other iwi calling for iwi-owned farms to withdraw their stock from Affco plants until the dispute was over.
