Union workers at the Sanford mussel processing plants in Havelock have vowed to continue strike action over pay talks.
Service and Food Workers Union spokesman John Cumming said 20 workers walked off the job late on Tuesday afternoon on an already understaffed shift.
The workers are unhappy with the company's proposal to cut the $1.50 per hour night shift allowance.
Union workers first took strike action on October 14 and again on October 20 in which 46 workers left their posts.
Non-union members were supportive of their workmates despite them leaving their posts during the shifts, he said.
Before the first strike on October 14 a petition was circulated around the plant about the pay offer and was signed by 128 people.
The plant has 98 union workers which showed other workers were behind their workmates, he said.
''They know we're doing it for them, too.''
Plant manager Wayne Macdonald said he would still negotiate with the union, but had not heard from them.
The strike action by workers ''certainly makes the way forward difficult'' and he could not say what effect the workers walking off the job had on non-union staff.
The night allowance was one of ''a number of issues'' which were sticking points in the negotiations, but he would not discuss what those were.
- The Marlborough Express
SIMON WONG
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