Tomato growers are going on strike on Monday.

New Zealand tomato growers are striking for 24 hours on Monday in protest of low pay.

First Union, which represents workers in the horticulture sector, said more than 100 tomato growers and distribution and logistics employees at Turners and Growers would walk off the job for 24 hours from 4am on Monday.

First Union lead organiser Denise Roche said the industrial action was in protest of "bleak pay" and Turners and Growers refusal to negotiate a collective agreement.

DAVID WHITE/STUFF Denise Roche said the strike was timed to coincide with a busy growing time of year for tomato growers.

Workers from nine Turners and Growers sites would strike including Ohaupo, Reporoa, Palmerston North, Christchurch and five sites in Auckland.

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Auckland workers would protest with pickets outside the Turners and Growers Favona site.

BRUCE MERCER/STUFF Tomato growers are asking to be paid the living wage which is currently $20.55.

Turners and Growers began in Auckland in 1897 when English-born Edward Turner started a fruit auction business.

It is now an international company with well known New Zealand brands including Jazz Apple, Enza, Sunfirst and its tomato brands Beekist and Ruby's.

First Union, which started bargaining on behalf of workers in February, was asking Turners and Growers to raise staff pay to the living wage of $20.55, Roche said.

Most workers were currently paid between the minimum wage of $16.50 or $17.50.

The living wage is a voluntary wage employers pay workers to cover basic expenses such as food, transport, housing and childcare.

"They deserve decent pay because they work really hard."

The Government has promised to lift the minimum wage to $20 by 2021.

Turners and Growers Global spokesman Andrew Keaney said it had a strong relationship with its more than 1500 staff across New Zealand.

"Throughout our discussions with First Union we have been acting in good faith while negotiating collective agreements for some time," Keaney said.

It was committed to working with First Union to resume negotiations and achieve a positive outcome for all as soon as possible, he said.

Roche said Turners & Growers needed to respect and value its workers.

"That's what this strike's about; respecting human dignity and valuing hard-working people."

While it was coming into the beginning of the tomato season, she did not expect the strike to affect tomato supply for shoppers.

Turners and Growers was refusing to return to the negotiation table unless workers agreed to abandon talks over a national agreement, Roche said.

She hoped the strike would be enough to bring Turners and Growers back to the negotiating table.

If it continued to refuse to negotiate then First Union would take the matter to the Employment Relations Authority, Roche said.