Samoans are not slaves says outspoken Member of Samoan Parliament, Levaopolo Talatonu. His comments follow claims that workers from Samoa were allegedly threatened with deportation by the ANZCO CMP Rangitikei meat processing company.
Levaopolo says people must be careful and advises against signing individual contacts if there is no agreement under the initial working contract to do so.
ANZCO CMP has denied allegations that Samoan workers at the processing plant near Marton were coerced to believe they had to leave New Zealand, if they didn’t sign new contracts.
Last week The Pacific People’s Advisory Council for Auckland City said it hopes a New Zealand meat processor is not trying to exploit workers from Samoa.
ANZCO CMP, which has been in talks since April to negotiate a new collective agreement to replace the one that expired in September, is are now recruiting new workers from Samoa while over 100 workers remain in their seventh week of a lockout because of the industrial dispute.
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