Workers to strike at Tiwai Point aluminium smelter
Sydney (4 May)
Unionised workers at Rio Tinto’s Tiwai Point aluminium smelter will strike for four days this week following two and a half years of negotiations over an employment agreement, New Zealand union E tū said on 2 May.
E tū workers plan to strike on the 4th, 6th, 8th, and 10th of May, the union’s Industry Director, Mat Danaher, told Lithos.
E tū and Rio Tinto have agreed to meet for mediation on 20 May, Danaher said.
“The union has previously asked for mediation, and the employer attended but did not take it seriously. We expect them to be a bit more serious now,” Danaher added.
On 2 May, Rio Tinto told RNZ that it will meet with E tū on 20 May and continue to engage with it in good faith. The company and its local subsidiary – New Zealand Aluminium Smelter – did not respond to questions from Lithos over the weekend.
Unions represented 39,573 manufacturing workers, equivalent to about 19% of the manufacturing workforce, in March 2025, data from the New Zealand Companies Office show.
New Zealand’s manufacturing unionisation rate has remained stable over the last decade, despite a drop in sectoral employment. Unions represented 19% of New Zealand’s manufacturing workforce, equivalent to 46,108 workers, in March 2015.
Unionised workers in New Zealand can strike over bargaining disputes after 40 days of negotiations, if their collective agreements have expired, according to Employment New Zealand (ENZ).
Workers launched just 22 work stoppages over the nine months to September 2025, data from ENZ show. But over 100,000 public sector education and healthcare workers launched funding-related strikes in October.
By Avinash Govind