KEY POINTS:
The threatened strike by 4500 dairy workers is off after their union and Fonterra reached a proposed settlement today.
The Dairy Workers Union today suspended its notice of industrial action ahead of ratification meetings, at which it will recommend acceptance.
The collective agreement covers approximately 4500 workers in Fonterra's primary processing sites including 1200 milk tanker drivers.
The ratification meetings are expected to take about three weeks when milk collection and processing systems have to cope with the season's biggest flows.
Fonterra today confirmed the settlement had been proposed.
"We are pleased to have reached a fair and appropriate agreement," the cooperative's director of milk supply, Barry Harris, said.
"While it's still to be ratified by the union, we believe this agreement will give security for both sides in what are turbulent times at the moment, economically and financially."
A tanker strike could have forced farmers to dump millions of litres of milk.
No details have been released of Fonterra's latest pay offer, but earlier it had proposed a rise of 5 per cent plus a 2.5 per cent lump-sum.
The union wanted an 8 per cent rise and said that the average Fonterra farmer earned nearly $900,000 last season - a lift in payout of nearly 77 per cent - and had been offered a payout this season worth nearly $800,000.
"Workers are looking for their fair share in what has been a bumper year for the industry," the union's national secretary, James Ritchie said.
- NZPA
