The employees at Mudginberri had negotiated their own employment contracts without any union involvement. The union was concerned that wages and conditions at Mudginberri did not comply with standard award entitlements and that essentially "the meat industry was a piecework industry whereby you're paid on the amount of work that you did" and "that employees were in fact being dudded on that particular situation by as much as $400 and $500 a week. Because they were carrying out far greater productivity, certainly being paid more, but had they been employed under the worst award that we had any where in Australia they would have been about $400 a week ahead." according Anderson. But the Mudginberri workers claimed they were happy with their contracts and most refused to support the picket. Most of the workforce were members of the AMIEU but had little contact with the union.