Talley’s don’t want you to read this

Written By: - Date published: 3:00 pm, May 11th, 2016 - 14 comments
Categories: Unions - Tags: ,

The New Zealand Council of Trade Unions has just launched its new digital campaigning site – Together

And their first campaign has been emailed out by Bertie Ratu – meatworker and a union member.

My name’s Bertie Ratu – and if my employer Talley’s had their way, I wouldn’t be able to send you this email. They’re taking legal action to gag me and my workmates. They want to stop us from talking about why we want a fair deal.

And that’s not all – they’ve unlawfully stopped us coming to work, suspended us for wearing union t-shirts, and too many of our mates are getting seriously injured at work.

Sir Peter Talley runs his company hands-on. He’s refused to listen to us, but he’ll listen to the people in his community, who buy his products. It was his work in business and the community that got him his knighthood, after all.

Will you join with other New Zealanders and sign the open letter telling Sir Peter to act like a real Kiwi and deal with us fairly?

CLICK HERE TO SIGN

Talley’s have done very well out of us. When he got knighted, Sir Peter himself said “we’ve been fortunate to work with some really passionate people in some exciting industries and have some fun and success along the way.”  We think he should recognise the people who helped with that success and negotiate with them decently.

Please tell him to do the right thing.

Thank you,
Bertie Ratu
Meat worker and MWU member

14 comments on “Talley’s don’t want you to read this ”

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  1. Tiger Mountain 1
    11 May 2016 at 4:34 pm

    good on the CTU for this initiative, community organising is where it is at for unions now along with traditional bargaining and workplace organisation as full time work disappears for so many

    unite all the precariat, freelancers, self employed and SME workers that can be united!

    I look forward to a full consumer boycott of Talleys to bring them to account once and for all

    • John shears 1.1
      11 May 2016 at 4:40 pm

      Go the CTU
      It was with great pleasure that I took the last bag of McCain’s Baby peas
      from the freezer at my supermarket on Monday and then went and told the management that all they had left were Talley’s and that I refuse to buy that brand because of the way they treat their workers. I will keep checking and commenting.

      • Sam C 1.1.1
        12 May 2016 at 9:18 am

        That’ll show them. You assume that McCains’ treatment of their workers is better than Talley’s? Having worked for both as a harvester driver during university, I can assure you that ain’t the case.

  2. Raff 2
    11 May 2016 at 7:14 pm

    Is there a way to donate on the website?

  3. b waghorn 3
    11 May 2016 at 7:17 pm

    Not sure why but after signing I can’t link to fb to share post

  4. ankerawshark 4
    11 May 2016 at 10:20 pm

    Signed and passed on to others to sign. Not using FB though b waghorn.

  5. Myrtle 5
    11 May 2016 at 10:59 pm

    I didn’t realise McCain’s were Talley’s – could anybody please provide a full list of Talley’s products? I am planning to send notices around my childrens’ school encouraging a boycott.

    • Andre 5.1
      11 May 2016 at 11:09 pm

      McCain are not connected to Talley’s (as far as I can tell). However, McCain is a big multinational corporate, so possibly not much preferable.

      http://www.mccain.com/ if you’re interested.

      • Rosie 5.1.1
        12 May 2016 at 11:35 am

        I’ve boycotted Talleys for as long as I can remember due to their appalling work rights abuses but I also don’t purchase McCains as they had issues with on site health and safety failures for workers but also food hygiene issues, while ago, about 7 years ago from memory.

        Toxic weeds seeds in the frozen peas, parts of a mouse in another product and some other things I can’t recall. It was quite a feature on Campbell Live back in the day.

        I always buy watties frozen peas and corn but then I don’t know their track record……….

        • Daveosaurus 5.1.1.1
          12 May 2016 at 5:25 pm

          Toxic seeds in the peas was Talley’s, not McCain’s. http://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/50539/talley039s-faces-grilling-over-poison-berry-claim

          I haven’t knowingly bought Talley’s anything in a long time – their disgraceful attitude towards customers and their own staff a large part of that. I’d sooner deal with reputable foreigners (Watties is owned by Heinz) than crooked, abusive and corrupt locals.

          • Rosie 5.1.1.1.1
            13 May 2016 at 12:55 pm

            Oh well, there you go :-).

            Annoyingly we have to rely on overseas companies for large scale food production as Talleys, being one of the few local producers of frozen vege shouldn’t really be in business. (I’m vego so don’t have to worry about consuming Talleys meat)

            Also, my vogels bread is Korean these days. Goodman Feilder Wattie were sold some time last year I think.

  6. byd0nz 6
    12 May 2016 at 10:18 am

    Reminds me of that capitalist rat, Lord Vesty, his ‘Works’
    employed the same behaviour. Smash Capitalism.