Union Should Explain Why Workers In Nelson And Not At Work

Union Should Explain Why Workers In Nelson And Not At Work
 
Affco today called on the Meat Workers Union to explain why its members were in Nelson at CTU organised publicity stunts today when they could have been back at work.
 
Affco Operations Director, Rowan Ogg says the Union’s actions are bizarre given that it rejected Affco’s offer to get all its members back to work.
 
Mr Ogg said the Union had still not explained publicly why it rejected an offer last week that would have seen all its members return to work.
 
“The Union is forcing hardship on its members with the ongoing strikes.  After making constructive offers to the Union, it’s now up to Union leadership to demonstrate a real desire to make progress.”
 
Mr Ogg said the company has been frustrated at the Union’s failure to put any alternative options to the company’s new Collective terms during past mediation attempts.
 
Affco has also guaranteed that workers’ daily pay would not be affected by the operational Collective changes.
 
Affco’s back to work offer came after 8 weeks of strike action by the Union. The Union instead extended strike action.
 
The majority of Affco’s workers are not Union members and are working as normal with all plants operational.
 
Industrial Dispute Fact Sheet:
 
The Meat Workers Union has made a number of incorrect and misleading claims in its statements regarding the dispute.  These are set out below, along with the facts:
 
Union Claim:
“Talley’s has stopped workers from being able to go to work and earn an income to feed their kids.”
 
Fact:
This dispute is between Affco and its workers.
 
There are 450 workers across all Affco plants that remain locked out.  There are 1100 Union members who are on strike. 
 
Last week Affco offered to restart all striking workers if the Union ended its strike action and engaged in meaningful mediation during the return to work. The Union rejected this offer.  Despite this Affco lifted the lockout notice for a further 300 workers.  The Union refused this return to work instead keeping all those workers out on strike
 
Union Claim:
“First Affco locked out 1,000 workers and their families after only 10 hours of face to face negotiations, then they told us they only came to mediation becausethey were legally required to, then they cancelled a mediation session and now they've tabled a completely new document.”
 
Fact:
Negotiations commenced mid November, the lockout occurred at the end of February, the company had conceded about half of its claims; the Union had conceded none of theirs.
 
The mediation was postponed, as a result of the union placing court action on conflicting dates.
 
The document is not new, but combines the existing agreement, the company’s claims and the site documents, which the Union has had for 18 months.
 
Union Claim:
Mr Eastlake says the partial lifting of the lockout for 300 Affco workers “is not a gesture of good will, but a gesture of production needs.”
 
Fact:
The offer to unlock covered all workers, not 300 as asserted by Mr Eastlake. Had the union abided by the offer, the total workforce would have been back in work within three weeks.
 
Union Claim:
“Workers were devastated when Affco wouldn't guarantee it would lift the lockout for everyone at yesterday's mediation. The company could actually extend the suffering for those families that are still locked out if the company get the workers back it sorely needs to meet the cull cow season, which is now in full swing."
 
Fact:
Last week Affco offered to unlock all of the employees over a known time frame, the Union rejected this offer. The company made the offer to progressively unlock employees in an attempt to meet the objectives of both parties, for Affco that is to ensure meaningful bargaining occurs on claims to enhance the chance of a resolution, and for the Union, their wish for all their members to be unlocked over a known timeframe.
 
Affco has been working to ensure mediation is constructive and is demonstrating good faith in making its offers of return to work to the Union.
 
ENDS

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