31 Dismissed At Plywood Factory

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31289, 8 February 1967, Page 3

31 Dismissed At Plywood Factory

(From Our Own Reporter>

GREYMOUTH, February 7.

Fletcher Industries dismissed 31 workers at its Gladstone plant yesterday because of a reduced demand for New Zealand plywood.

The dismissals include 19 men, most of them part-time workers with other employment, and 10 married women. A spokesman for Fletchers said the decision to do so was regrettable, but there was a downward trend in the plywood market last year as a result of the fall in building activity and the importation of plywood from Australia under the New Zealand-Aus-tralia Free Trade Agreement The dismissals reduced the staff at the plant, the biggest of its kind in New Zealand, to about 100. Those dismissed have been assured that they will be re-employed if the situation improves. Fletchers said the production at three other factories had been reduced last year and one at Maumui, in the

North Island, closed completely. Notice has also been served on 17 workers at the Auck--1 nd factory. There is about two million i square feet of plywood, worth about £70,000, stock- ' piled at Gladstone.