Listen Now: 
Labour’s Ikaroa Rawhiti MP Meka Whaitiri wants Maori trusts and iwi to withhold livestock and produce from Talley’s until the company gets back to the table and negotiates a collective for workers in its Affco freezing workers.
About 150 workers at Affco’s Wairoa plant have been locked out for more than month after refusing to sign individual agreements as a condition for working the new season.
Workers in other plants have signed but are challenging the company’s tactics in the Employment Court.
Ms Whaitiri, who started her working life as a freezing worker, says as well as meat workers Talley’s Group owns fishing companies and fruit and vegetable processors.
"A lot of our iwi that hold fish quota trade with Talley’s as well as a lot of our produce that comes off our Maori land. I’m making a call out to our iwi people to put pressure on Talley’s to get them not only back to the table but to stop this shoddy game of trying to get workers to sign individual employment agreements that are going to do them more harm than good," she says.
She is pleased the Iwi Leaders Group is trying to negotiate a resolution to the dispute, in a repeat of what they did to end a similar lock our three years ago.
Copyright © 2015, UMA Broadcasting Ltd: www.waateanews.com
RELATED NEWS
