The New Zealand Council of Trade Unions is calling on meat processor, ANZCO, to clarify reports it's trying to recruit new workers in Samoa.
More than a hundred freezing workers from the Marton plant have been locked out for nearly seven weeks.
They're refusing to accept pay cuts of up to 20 percent and reductions in other conditions.
The CTU secretary, Peter Conway, says there are legal implications in any use of replacement labour as cover during a lockout.
He says a confidential source informed the union about the trip to Samoa.
"It's not absolutely confirmed, but that was the impression he had. We've had quite a lot of correspondence with the Department of Labour, Meat Industry etc, about Samoan quota workers in the context of this dispute, so that's why we are asking ANZCO what is happening?"
The CTU's Peter Conway.
