AT LEAST 100 people in the Tamworth area are willing to work at local abattoirs, proving there is little genuine need for migrant workers.
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That’s the claim of the Australian meatworkers’ union after representatives canvassed people in the Tamworth CBD last week.
And union spokesman Grant Courtney said it had taken four people only about 70 minutes each to come up with that total.
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“We ended up with 106 people and stopped there, because we’d proven the point,” Mr Courtney said.
The visit was prompted by the news that Thomas Foods International (TFI) had plans to redeploy up to 100 workers on 457 visas to Tamworth after a fire in its Murray Bridge facility.
But Mr Courtney said it showed the three Tamworth meat or poultry processing facilities – TFI, Baiada and Teys – that they could meet what he’s called their “moral duty” to employ locals first.
“There’s a large group that are Indigenous, they’re from 16 through to 20 years old, they’re 50 per cent male, 50 per cent female – and they are keen, they are keen to work,” he said.
“Probably 15 per cent had applied for jobs there and had been rejected, for what reasons I don’t know.
“They were just told ‘not suitable’; I don’t know what that means …
”They have applied for a range of jobs but have been rejected, and they believe they’re being rejected because the company is choosing to employ temporary migrants.”
When asked why the other 85 per cent of the petitioners had not already applied for a job, Mr Courtney said “We didn’t ask that question”.
“That wasn’t part of the questions; we’ve just asked them, ‘Do you want to work in the meat industry?’ [and] ‘Have you applied?’ – they either answered yes or no.”
Two respond
Baiada Poultry said in a statement: “We take great pride in being one of the largest employers of the local community in Tamworth. We will be very pleased to receive a list of potential job candidates from the AMIEU and will contact them as relevant positions become available.”
Indeed, Mr Courtney singled out Baiada for praise, saying chief executive Simon Camilleri had this week “expressed interest in giving these local kids an induction into their meat processing operations in Tamworth, following contact by the AMIEU”.
“We congratulate Baiada on taking this initiative and will be working closely with them to transition as many of these youth as possible into stable, long-term employment,” he said.
TFI said in a statement it “would encourage anyone keen and serious about looking to start a career in the meat industry to contact the company direct on (02) 6764 9900”.
“The fact is that TFI has, and will continue to, recruit and train locals at our Tamworth meat processing facility,” it said.
Teys did not return the Leader’s call.