Union hits out at plan to fill jobs
The New Zealand Meatworkers Union is opposing a move by the Alliance Group to import 100 overseas workers for its Southland plants.
Alliance manufacturing general manager Willie Wiese said they were recruiting, because of a worker shortage and sourcing seasonal employees was one of the industry’s biggest challenges.
Alliance employs about 4500 seasonal employees throughout New Zealand including more than 2000 in Southland.
However, Otago-Southland Meatworkers Union secretary Gary Davis said the union would oppose the move, with hundreds of Southlanders vying for those jobs and being rejected at Southland plants.
The union was notified by Immigration NZ about the Alliance application and invited to put in a submission by August 19. In October, 1000 people had applied for jobs at the Alliance Lorneville plant, and only 400 had been successful, Davis said.
‘‘And they [Alliance] have got the cheek to say that they can’t fill the jobs ... if there weren’t the people available I would not have a problem.’’
Wiese said there was a shortage of workers. ‘‘Employing New Zealanders is always Alliance’s preference, however given the significant shortages of skilled and unskilled candidates at processing plants over recent years, we do need to look overseas for employees to ensure we can continue to meet the needs of our farmers and customers [...]’’.
Alliance ran recruitment campaigns throughout New Zealand and worked with Work and Income, the Ministry for Social Development and development agencies to source staff, Wiese said.
Davis believed some unsuccessful Southlanders who applied for work at the Lorneville plant who had passed the medical and fitness test were discriminated against because of age and possibly for past injuries and existing ailments. The drug testing was also a factor, Davis said.
Wiese said Alliance rejected ‘‘any suggestion our recruitment practices exclude suitable local candidates’’.
Davis was concerned about precedents being set and that it could mean hundreds more Southlanders missing out to workers from overseas.
Alliance said the proportion of overseas workers it employed was less than 1 per cent at plants throughout the country.
Otago Southland Employers’ Association chief executive Virginia Nicholls said the Alliance move did not surprise her. ‘‘There are shortages all over New Zealand and OtagoSouthland and in different industries.’’
Recruitment campaigns are in full swing across the country to address the shortage of fulltime commercial truck drivers.
Road Transport Forum NZ chief executive Ken Shirley said alarm bells were ringing as drivers in the baby boomers group near retirement.
There were between 22,000 and 25,000 full-time commercial truck drivers in the country and the average age was 54, Shirley said.
‘‘It’s getting harder and harder to attract young people to become professional truck drivers.
‘‘It’s a skilled labour job and there’s a chronic shortage.’’
Road Transport Forum NZ and three of its subsidiaries – Road Transport Association New Zealand, NZ Trucking Association and National Road Carriers Association – have been promoting truck driving as a career in various sectors for many years.
‘‘We’ve got pipelines [communications] going into schools, trucking magazines being sent to schools, academies set up and cadetships,’’ Shirley said.
Truck shows and other industry events are also being targeted to promote the occupation.
Shirley believed some people’s perception of truck drivers was that they had to be big and muscular and required to work long and unsocialable hours.
Modern technology had made many trucks easy to drive and comfortable, Shirley said.
Hokonui Rural Transport Ltd manager Adam Waghorn said the company had 20 drivers and about half were aged 40 or older.
He said the company was always interested to recruit and promote truck driving as career.
‘‘I’ve talked at career evenings at schools . . . and we usually have one or two [school students] here on work experience a year.’’
One of his senior staff members, Doug McDiarmid, has been driving trucks for 51 years, including three years transporting liquid nitrogen from Perth to Kalgoorlie for mining companies.
‘‘I’ve never thought about doing anything else, it’s all I know,’’ McDiarmid, 69, said.
He thought the most unusual cargo he had carted was a truck and trailer load of ostriches from Five Rivers to Gore.
Before steel-belted tyres came along, flat tyres were a constant headache for McDiarmid, especially on shingle roads.