GLASSWORKS SALE

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30045, 1 February 1963, Page 12

GLASSWORKS SALE

F.O.L. Leader

Objects

(N.Z. Press Association) WHANGAREI, Jan. 31.

The New Zealand Government has given away £12,500,000 to the Colombo Plan countries yet it could not stand behind one of New Zealand’s own industries for £250,000, said the vice-presi-dent of the Federation of Labour (Mr T. E. Skinner) in Whangarei last night “It’s a crying shame when we New Zealanders sit down and let the Whangarei glassworks be sold at less than cost price to an overseas cartel,” he added.

Mr Skinner said he believed a take-over at a nominal price was part of a preconceived plan. New Zealand investors were losing their £375,000 investment in the glassworks because of their faith in a Labour Government guarantee of a sure market for 10 years, he said. They were enticed by the Government guarantee and the £1 shares were now worth 2s 3d.

The employees had foregone a new award agreement, although their old one had been finished in November, said Mr Skinner. They had accepted the challenge of keeping production going in spite of very trying conditions, an arrangement the union would never have agreed to unless the industry were sick. However, the machinations of politicians and various negotiations had followed. “Sometimes I wonder how we in New Zealand ever make our way in world affairs at all,” Mr Skinner said. “We’ve got an industry, dreamed up and established b; a New Zealander, and which would save overseas funds.

“Then we poke the finger at the fellow (and he may have made some mistakes), and then we look around to sell it overseas at a time of economic crisis and when we need all the overseas funds we can get.”