By Krissy Moreau
More than 300 staff at a Southland meat processing plant have been told they're out of work if they can't transfer.
The meat workers in Mataura gathered at their local community centre today to be told officially the news that’s been rumoured all week.
Farmer-owned co-operative Alliance Group, which operates eight processing plants around the country, is moving its sheep processing chain in Mataura 50 kilometres down the road to Lorneville.
Alliance Group CEO Grant Cuff says the decision comes after declining sheep numbers.
“We've seen a 20 percent decline in lamb and sheep numbers in the southern region in the last five years,” he says.
The move means a one-hour-and-20-minute return trip for 325 of these workers, and some say that’s too far to travel.
Others, including Gary Davis of the Otago Southland Meat Workers’ Union, are concerned the work won't have the same earning potential
“That will be on night shift, it will be the last chain that will be starting and the first chain that will finish,” he says.
The Alliance Group says the merger of its two plants will benefit the workers.
“By combining the two plants we expect the average seasonal earnings for all of the people to improve,” says Mr Cuff.
The potential blow to the Mataura economy will be softened by the local plant’s recent $15 million upgrade to its beef operation.
The Alliance Group is giving its staff at Mataura a four week consultation period.
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