New Zealand / Hawkes Bay

Timber workers strike over 'miserly' offer

10:54 am on 8 July 2016

About 200 workers have walked off the job at a Napier timber mill in a 24-hour strike.

Workers at the Pan Pac Mill have rejected the company's offer to settle a collective agreement, describing the offer as "miserly".

The workers are represented by FIRST Union and E Tū.

FIRST's Hawke's Bay organiser, Mike McNab, said its members agreed to forgo a pay rise and benefits when Pan Pac was struggling to turn a profit.

The company is now back making a healthy profit and has refused to acknowledge how hard the union's members worked to get it there, he said.