Rudd Hughes: Workers First Union national secretary on Woolworths axing South Island butchers

Supermarket chain Woolworths is looking at closing down its in-store butchery departments across the entire South Island to instead only stock pre-packaged meat. 

Woolworths are attributing their decision to the difficulty of hiring butchers, but Workers First Union national secretary Rudd Hughes says butchers are only leaving because they can "see the writing on the wall".

"So, although it's only a trial, many of them feel it's a fait accompli, and so they're getting ahead of it and getting out before they can," Hughes told Heather du Plessis-Allan. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Ever due for z Ellen's.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Nineteen nineteen is the text understand the text fees apply?
Will we will go to the White House after five
o'clock and see if we can get into this and
just figure out what the heck has happened here? Now
news locally, Woolworth's is looking at closing down it's in
store butchery departments across the entire South Island. The supermarket
chain is doing a trial in some stores of stocking

(00:25):
only pre packed meat. Woolworth says it's just too hard
to recruit enough butchers. Rud Hughes is the deputy secretary
of Workers First Union and is with us. Now, Hey, Rudd, Hi,
how are you? I'm very well, thank you. Is it
true there aren't enough butchers?

Speaker 1 (00:40):
Well, what's happened is that the butchers are getting ahead
of the restructuring. They are actually leaving because they could
see the riding on the wall. So although it's only
a trial, many of them feel it's a fader complete
and so they're getting ahead of it and getting out
before they can. And of course they can't attract anyone
new because why would you go to a job The

(01:00):
possibility is you're going to be restructured out of a job.
That's the real problem.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
Okay, So is this why the trial has gone from
two stores to six stores.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
Yes, that's exactly why.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
Because it's kind of it's it's compounding on itself.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
Yeah, that's right, and it's kind of you know, it's
like a self fulfilling prophecy. They can't you know, they
can't get enough butchers because they you know, because they
don't want to go to a job that they'll be
restructured and then they can't get enough butchers. So they're
going to restructure them too, in order to go to
prepackaged meets.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
Okay, so where are these butchers going?

Speaker 1 (01:34):
That's a good question. I mean some of them will
be going to Australia, There's no doubt about that, some
of them. I mean there's just not enough you know,
room in the market on the and the local butchers
to pick everyone up, and so some of these people
will be going, you know, basically onto the dolt queue,
which is you know, which as we know, is you know,
almost record high. So you know, that's that's that's the

(01:57):
that's the potential out come of those.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
Now why is this happening, right? I mean if Wilworths
is making a decision to get rid of its butchers.
It tells me that not enough of us are buying
their meats that they're butchering themselves.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
Well. One of the things about Willhurst is that they're
constantly undergoing restructures. They had a big restructure last year
and that's called Better Together. And what's happened there out
of that restructure is is that they have increased the
workload for those people who've remained. I think they've lost
about almost seven hundred people, and a lot of those

(02:34):
people who did stay lost wages. So they've actually been
working on these constant restructures to improve their profitability. But
if you look at somewhere like the warehouse, they've been
doing that as well and hasn't exactly been a raging success.
You know. One of the arguments that we've made is
that perhaps they need to be looking at what they're
providing for people coming into the shop rather than kind

(02:56):
of aiming for that sector of the market that pack
and say've already really have have a hold on. Maybe
they should be looking at things like improving their services,
improving the quality of the food that they've got. That
kind of thing, but that doesn't seem to have registered
with the company. It's it's more a case of cutting
cutting numbers.

Speaker 2 (03:13):
This has already happened in the North Island, hasn't it.

Speaker 1 (03:16):
Yes, it has. It happened some time ago, Okay, and
that's so that's why the South Island butchers are very concerned.

Speaker 2 (03:22):
Okay, So just that I am absolutely clear that what
we're talking about here is you go to the you
go to a Woolies Woollies. You can go to the
like the shelf where all the meat is and stuff.
You can grab yourself a packet of sirloin steaks that's
already packaged up and stuff. Are they talking when we
talk about the meat that is now not going to
be there?

Speaker 1 (03:41):
Is it?

Speaker 2 (03:41):
The stuff and the fancy stuff in the Delhi section?
Is that what's gone?

Speaker 1 (03:45):
Yes, that's that's correct. And they also used to cut
up the meat and package it for both for the
you know where you just go and pick it up of.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
That's probably wasn't that profitable, Like I can't think of course.
My local is a is a Woollies, and sometimes very
occasionally I have to go in another run out of
some sort of meat and I have to go buy
it there. I would never go to those guys at
the Delhi.

Speaker 1 (04:06):
Would you? I have been to those guys at the Delhi.
I'm not a big meat eater, but the fact is
that what we're what we're finding, at least anecdotally, is
the stuff that is the prepackaged meat in the North
Tide isn't as good a quality is the stuff that's
being put together by the butchers in the South.

Speaker 2 (04:22):
Rubbish. I wouldn't buy. I'd like, I really hate you
having to buy my meat from Willie's. All right, listen Rudd,
thank you appreciate it. Rud Hughes, who is the Deputy
secretary of the Workers First Union. For more from Heather Duplessy,
Allen Drive, listen live to news talks they'd be from
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