Workers strike for a fair deal as ‘shellfish’ Sanford profits soar 

Mus­sel farm­ing crews at Sanford’s Have­lock oper­a­tions at the Top of the South will be strik­ing for 12 hours tomor­row in a fight for fair con­di­tions.

The action comes after pro­tract­ed nego­ti­a­tions for a new Col­lec­tive Employ­ment Agree­ment stalled over San­ford’s refusal to val­ue its front­line work­force.

Crew mem­bers, includ­ing Deck­hands, Senior Deck­hands, and Skip­pers, are mem­bers of the Mar­itime Union of New Zealand (MUNZ), and are cur­rent­ly work­ing under out­dat­ed indi­vid­ual agree­ments.

Their key demands include being paid at the full rate for all hours spent onboard their ves­sel – which they can live on for days – and to have long-stag­nant allowances brought up to date.

“Our mem­bers work incred­i­bly long and hard hours, often in ardu­ous con­di­tions, to make San­ford the prof­itable com­pa­ny it is,” says MUNZ Nel­son Branch Sec­re­tary Hol­ly Payne.

“Mus­sel ves­sel crew mem­bers can live on board for four days, work­ing 17-hour shifts with 7 hours off for sleep and rest a day.”

“San­ford post­ed a $34 mil­lion net prof­it in the first half of this year, yet it refus­es to give its loy­al, long-serv­ing work­ers a pay review, which they haven’t seen in two years.”

The dis­pute also high­lights the mas­sive and grow­ing dis­par­i­ty between work­ers and senior man­age­ment at the com­pa­ny.

“These work­ers face 17-hour shifts in chal­leng­ing weath­er for a frac­tion of the CEO’s mil­lion-plus pay pack­age. These work­ers have allowances that have not been increased for many years,” said Ms. Payne.

Ves­sels can trav­el away from the Top of the South includ­ing to oper­a­tions as dis­tant as Stew­art Island – Rak­iu­ra.

San­ford’s response to the work­ers’ claims was to pro­pose claw­backs of exist­ing con­di­tions.

“This isn’t just about wages, it’s about respect,” says Ms. Payne.

“San­ford can eas­i­ly afford to pay their work­ers fair­ly. This strike is a last resort for a work­force that has been pushed to the lim­it by a com­pa­ny that has lost any sense of oblig­a­tion to the peo­ple whose hard work gen­er­ates its suc­cess.”

Strike action will take place from 10am to 10pm on Wednes­day, 5 Novem­ber 2025.