Wairoa Affco meat worker union members are hitting the streets tomorrow after voting to reject "punitive" individual agreements as a precondition to returning to work in the new season.
"Wairoa workers have seen the impact of accepting the company's individual agreements in other sites and they've decided they won't put up with that," union branch organiser Eric Mischefski said.
The union and company are locked in dispute to renegotiate a collective agreement that expired in December 2013 for eight North Island meat works.
Affco operations manager Rowan Ogg said a signed employment agreement was a legal requirement prior to employment commencing.
The terms and conditions of the individual contracts were "not dissimilar" from contracts with other meat companies "and in fact many have conditions more onerous than those in the agreement".
