Whanganui Chronicle
  • Whanganui Chronicle home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Taranaki
  • National Park
  • Whakapapa
  • Ohakune
  • Raetihi
  • Taihape
  • Marton
  • Feilding
  • Palmerston North

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • New Plymouth
  • Whanganui
  • Palmertson North
  • Levin

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Whanganui Chronicle

Stalemate for union workers at Affco/Land Meat

By Laurel Stowell
Whanganui Chronicle·
29 Sep, 2016 09:00 AM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Union members at Whanganui's Affco meat works are still waiting for a new collective contract. PHOTO/ FILE

Union members at Whanganui's Affco meat works are still waiting for a new collective contract. PHOTO/ FILE

Land Meat and Affco Imlay staff who belong to the New Zealand Meat Workers' Union want their collective contracts renewed.

Land Meat has about 180 workers and their collective contract expired in 2014. The collective contract for union members among about 500 staff at Affco Imlay expired in December 2013.

All unionised staff at both sites are still working under the terms of those expired contracts, Affco general manager Andy Leonard said. Parties have been negotiating them since expiry, he said, but no agreement has been reached.

New Zealand Meat Workers' Union national secretary Graham Cooke said the union has tried to get negotiations going, to no avail.

For Land Meat, the preludes to negotiation began two months before the contract expired. But the union hasn't been able to get anyone to the negotiating table, Mr Cooke said.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The company has said it will not negotiate unless union members stop talking about it on social media. Last week the Employment Relations Authority fined the company $15,000 and ordered it to get negotiation happening within six weeks.

Mr Leonard said union members were making untrue and derogatory comments on social media, and that did not show the good faith needed for bargaining.

These days most employers expected staff to refrain from making negative comments about them on social media, he said.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The situation for staff at Affco meat works, including Imlay, is slightly different. Affco has applied to employment courts to walk away from bargaining on collective contracts there. The matter is to go to the Court of Appeal.

The union, in its turn, is asking the court to fix a three-year contract and small pay rise for its members.

Mr Cooke said Affco staff had a high turnover, were very unhappy and worked in a climate of fear that was scaring them into accepting individual contracts.

That wasn't true, Mr Leonard said.

"The vast majority of our staff enjoy the environment and conditions at our plants."

Most did not belong to a union, Mr Leonard said, and had recently enjoyed longer seasons and increased annual earnings.

Mr Cooke said it was Affco's intention, led by the Talley family, to get rid of unions. Mr Leonard said that was untrue.

"Affco have repeated consistently that we are not anti-union, we are pro-efficiency, which has been achieved in recent years."

The union would prefer to put its energy into negotiation rather than social media, Mr Cooke said. The situation with Affco was "a shocking mess".

"We don't have this mess with any other company," he said.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Save

    Share this article

Latest from Whanganui Chronicle

Whanganui Chronicle

Why Whanganui is in for a warmer than normal winter

02 Jul 09:14 PM
Whanganui Chronicle

How a white picket fence symbolises a significant Whanganui family

02 Jul 06:00 PM
Whanganui Chronicle

Rangitīkei fencer regains Golden Pliers title

02 Jul 06:00 PM

There’s more to Hawai‘i than beaches and buffets – here’s how to see it differently

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Whanganui Chronicle

Why Whanganui is in for a warmer than normal winter

Why Whanganui is in for a warmer than normal winter

02 Jul 09:14 PM

There's a 60% chance of above-average temperatures between July and September.

How a white picket fence symbolises a significant Whanganui family

How a white picket fence symbolises a significant Whanganui family

02 Jul 06:00 PM
Rangitīkei fencer regains Golden Pliers title

Rangitīkei fencer regains Golden Pliers title

02 Jul 06:00 PM
Athletics: Early training years bring lessons in preparation

Athletics: Early training years bring lessons in preparation

02 Jul 06:00 PM
From early mornings to easy living
sponsored

From early mornings to easy living

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Whanganui Chronicle e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Whanganui Chronicle
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP