Shellfish processing workers at Sanford’s Havelock site will strike for 24 hours from 6:00am Wednesday 18 February, after months of negotiations failed to reach a fair collective agreement.
E tū members have been in bargaining with Sanford since June 2025. Talks have now reached an impasse, with the company pushing for significant clawbacks while offering a pay rise that would leave workers worse off in real terms.
Sanford is seeking to cut long service leave entitlements, remove some workers from coverage of the collective agreement altogether, and reduce conditions that have been in place for years. At the same time, the company’s pay offer sits below inflation, meaning workers would effectively be taking a pay cut during a cost-of-living crisis.
The workers are employed across a range of shellfish processing roles at the Havelock site and say the proposals show a lack of respect for the contribution they make to the business.
Sanford worker and E tū delegate Kerry Price says members have voted to take industrial action because they’re fed up.
“There are no happy faces down there anymore. People just clock in and clock out, do the job and go home. A lot of people are quite depressed,” Kerry says.
“They used to be quite respectful of the workforce. But we’ve got a new CEO, and he wants to change things. He published a newsletter telling us he wanted Sanford to become a billion-dollar company, but there’s nothing in there about wages going up.
“It’s not just us. The workers on the boats are having the same problems. We’ve had managers leave, I spoke with them, they saw what was going on so they went off to get other jobs. We’re disgusted, really.”
E tū Director Finn O’Dwyer-Cunliffe says the dispute did not need to reach this point.
“This situation is completely unnecessary. Our members want to settle a fair agreement and get back to work, but Sanford is not listening to them,” Finn says.
“The company is demanding serious clawbacks while offering a pay rise that doesn’t even keep up with rising costs. That’s not acceptable, especially when the company has performed strongly in recent years.”
Finn says the dispute comes at a particularly tough time for jobs in the region.
“Havelock and the wider Marlborough region have already felt the impact of job insecurity and economic uncertainty. For Sanford to be pushing workers backwards like this only adds to that pressure.
“Our members are proud of the work they do and the role they play in the company’s success. All they are asking for is a fair deal that protects their conditions and allows them to keep up with the cost of living.”