Thirty eight workers at an Open Country Dairy processing plant in Waharoa, Waikato walked off the job at 6pm on Wednesday night beginning an eight day long strike. Despite it being a large export industry, strikes in the dairy sector are rare. The workers are concerned about temporary work arrangements, hours of work, roster changes and their rights in relation to restructuring. The company has responded to the strike action by issuing a six week long lock out begining when the strike ends. Open Country Dairy is New Zealand’s second largest dairy processor.

The company may have difficultly maintaining the lockout when the Waikato reaches the peak of milk production in about a month. Open Country has brought in strikebreakers, including volunteer farmers from the region. A meeting today of the Council of Trade Unions Food and Beverage Unions Group and the International Union of Food Workers (IUF) pledged support to the striking workers.

Open Country was not the only company in the Waikato where industrial action was talking place, yesterday about 230 staff from Wintec polytechnic went on strike in protest at their employer’s proposal to increase teaching days by 10 per cent, but only offering a 1 per cent pay rise over 2 1/2 years. Helen Kelly of the CTU told the Waikato Times that there was also worker unrest and “harsh bargaining” in the region at large employers such as Telecom and The Warehouse. She said the timing of the actions was partly coincidence because of some agreements expiring at the same time but also down to “unrealistic bosses” and a cost-cutting tone set by the Government. Last week Prime Minster John Key addressed striking fire fighters and told them that most private sector workers were getting no increases this year, or taking pay cuts.