Clearly its not just WA that hasn't got enough meatworkers.
According to this story, the same applies in parts of NSW.

http://www.farmonline.com.au/news_daily.asp?ag_id=39990

It seems that lots of Aussies think that working in a meatworks
is below them, or that they would rather wait for a job
where they can be CEO or something :)

Yabby, I don't know if it's a matter of Aussies believing that working in a meatworks is beneath their dignity, perhaps it's more of a case that people are scared of being confronted about just where their food supplies actually comes from. I feel that a lot of people would be turned off ever eating meat again if they saw the abject cruelty of animals in total terror as they're being forced along a production line. Everybody has to eat, that's a fact, but humans have totally lost respect for the land and the animals that feed them. They breed meat producing species en mass simply so greedy humans consumers can stock their huge freezers to the hilt for their B-B-Q's and over indulgent lifestyles. Little wonder the world is chock full of obese children.

You say you learned a long time ago not to worry about things you cannot change, yet you seem to have a real bug up your bum about people refusing to take on jobs in the animal killing sector.

Wildcat, I remind you that people have eaten meat since forever,
but obesity was never a problem, until American junk food came
onto the market. So you are going to blame it on meat now?

Fact is that farming plays a large role in Australia and in
exports and meat is one of our main exports. If we export
them live people protest, if we try to process them locally
and need staff, you are amazed. Perhaps you are just stirring
once again for the sake of it :)

I think you want to inform yourself a little better about the
"terror" thinggy. A modern well run meatworks will go through
lots of effort to make sure that animals stay calm before
slaughter, it improves the meat and its kinder to the animals.

There was recently a story about a woman in the US, who had
autism, but could see the world from cows perspective. She
has become a consultant to the meat industry, to devise
handling systems to achieve exactly that. She's had great
results.

If people eat meat, why should they not accept how its produced?
Fact is that on this thread people are saying that there are
no jobs, that we lack exports. When I say well here is an
industry that can provide both, you say well Aussies can't
really be expected to do that job. Sigh.

Some things can be changed. Like enough political pressure until
the powers that be see reason. If Aussies don't want the jobs,
so let us bring in contract workers from overseas, for seasonal
work. Tens of thousands of Australians depend on the meat industry
for a living, stop holding us back from doing what we do well.
For that however,we need workers, Aussies or overseas ones.

Fact is that if there had been enough workers, there would have
been less stock standing in paddocks, hungry from the drought.
So it would be kind to animals too, a win-win situation. Only
stupidity holds us up from achieving that, it seems.

I don't know exactly why meatworks can't find workers Yabby. The major town near where I live once had a huge meatworks and half the town had worked there at one time or another, suddenly, it had been bought out and sold. Gone for good and all the jobs with it. Economic reasons they claimed.
It seems to me from what I can gather, todays meatworks are attempting to exploit workers into accepting low wages and nil entitlements for performing the crappy job of killing animals. Look what happened at the Cowra Abattoir. 29 meatworkers had been sacked and invited to re-apply to the abattoir for 20 jobs on new employment contracts that involved pay cuts of up to $180 a week. Surely, if abattoirs are making good export money, then they can afford to pay better rates, not the opposite by using draconian and outdated Work (non) Choices. That way, more people might be tempted to move to do unpleasant jobs, but then again, perhaps it's because of the mess our workplace security is in these days. Someone posted that workers no longer see job security as an important issue. I don't know anybody that thinks like that. I have a 28 year old son who is very worried about job security and I know many more like him. Why bother to go to all the trouble of moving to another area or State to find work only to end up on the dole in a strange area far from family and friends? Moving anywhere is very expensive and while the Government will pay a sum to get you there in the first place, I bet the curs won't give you a cent to get you back home after the job's finished. Oh no! Then starts the bastardisation of Centrelink and that's certainly not a pleasant experience.

Wildcat, I think there are various explanations, not just one.
Its in fact a trend in high income Western countries and was
the case in Switzerland, a rich country, over 30 years ago.
They used to bring in Italian workers, to do work that the
Swiss no longer wanted to do, for life was too easy. The same
applies here now. Govt benefits of every kind are overwhelming
here.

The situation in Cowra was a one off, they went broke in
the end and are now restructuring, as companies do, when they
are badly managed. Pay in the meatworks that I know something
about is around the 40k-50k mark for a 37 hour week, with
all sorts of entitlements. But I admit its not for everyone,
some people have more of an aptitude for it then others.

I am amazed that you are so terrified of the idea of travelling
anywhere, to find work. I've known heaps of people who packed
up their swag and ute and went around Australia to explore the
place. A friend of mine has been everywhere and never without
work. If he was stuck for a day, he'd volunteer to the next
employer he could find to work a day for free, if the employer
would consider him for a job. Most employers were so impressed
by his attitude, that he was given work immediately! Having
been on both sides of the employment story, I can tell you that
its really hard to find good staff and when you do, it pays to
look after them.

The whole world is a less secure place and will keep on that way.
If you want security, make sure that whoever you work for is
producing something that consumers actually want, then your
work will be guaranteed! Unless you work for Govt of course.

Yabby, northern Australian meatworks operate during the dry season. The abbattoir operators live in St Kilda Road Melbourne from Dec to May.

So if a worker travels across Australia for work in northern Australia what do they do in the wet season?
Leave? have you got $2000 to get home
Go on social security? DSS is loathe to give the dole to blow-ins.
Get another job? 95% of jobs only operate in the dry season.

I have never met any one who humped their swag around Australia but then I am a post-war baby boomer.

re the Cowra abbattoirs - the owners have a local reputation for being MEAN, so they used work choices to take the opportunity to reduce their wages bill.

Far from being a one off event, a bit of background research about other large employers named and shamed for ruthless treatment of their employees shows systematic erosion of wages by very profitable companies who want to reduce wages. For example SPOTLIGHT has sponsored the new headquarters of HAZBOLLAH the Jewish Ambulance.