On Saturday workers at five Affco meat processing plants around the North Island were told 762 union members would be locked out indefinitely after collective contract talks broke down.
About one third of the union members were not locked out of the five plants, and a further three plants were not locked out, but yesterday they voted to support those locked out and strike for 24 hours starting at 5am tomorrow, New Zealand Meat Workers Union national secretary Dave Eastlake said.
"The strike action has come about because of the lockout.
"We're hoping that it will get them to come back around the bargaining table, where we were when they locked people out, and complete the bargaining process."
Mr Nankivell, who has been one of those locked out, said it was a job he loved and many people stayed at the job for a long time, including one man who had been there for 48 years.
"I wouldn't have been there 35 years if I didn't, and the guy who's been there 48 years wouldn't have if he didn't enjoy it. It has been, in the past, a good working environment, [but] probably over the past two years or so things haven't been so great."
The last strike action he could remember was taken in 1984, he said.
The small Bay of Islands town, which is home to 1600 people, would be hard-hit by the lockout and subsequent strike action, as Affco was one of the bigger employers in the area.
"It'll be harder, people have really left the area over the past two years and this might be the catalyst to push more out."
Yesterday he went and spoke to the headmaster at the local school to warn of the possible backlash.
"Because if families aren't getting money, children will suffer."
The lockout affects staff at five of the company's eight plants; at Moerewa, Horotiu, Imlay, Wairoa and Manawatu.
But union members at all eight Affco plants would be striking tomorrow.
Mr Eastlake said about 70 per cent of the meat workers at the plants were union members.
The company is offering a 4.3 per cent pay rise over two years, but only if a new collective agreement is signed without dispute.
The contract talks were over flexibility of production, Mr Eastlake said.
"We want it in agreement form, and they want it in verbal form."
Affco chief executive Hamish Simpson said the company had enough workers to keep the plants operating during strike action.
"We'll muddle through, but we'll continue to process normally."
The plants have been able to continue processing during the lockout, Mr Simpson said.
Affco did not know when it would return to the table to resume discussions.
"They gave us a proposal in writing on Tuesday, and we've said to them that we'll respond to them also in writing, so [the] 'process continues' is probably the best way to say it," Mr Simpson said.
"We've got to consider fully their responses and that sort of carry on, and then sort of go from there."
