June 17, 2008

The Mari­time Uni­on of New Zea­l­and has attacked plans by employ­ers to bring in migrant labour into the sea­food industry after mass lay­offs in the same sec­tor.

A week after Seal­ord con­firmed it would axe 323 jobs from its Nel­son mus­sel fact­ory, two South Island sea­food com­pan­ies Tal­leys and Aotearoa Sea­food have applied to import 100 migrant labour­ers.

Mari­time Uni­on Gen­er­al Sec­ret­ary Tre­vor Han­son says that the use of tem­por­ary labour being impor­ted from over­seas threatens loc­al employ­ment.