SEVENTY-FOUR TO LOSE JOBS

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31504, 19 October 1967, Page 1

SEVENTY-FOUR TO LOSE JOBS

(New Zealand Press Association)

DUNEDIN, October 18. Seventy-four workers in the men’s clothing industry in Dunedin face unemployment between now and Christmas because of the impending closure of the factory of Croydon Clothing Company, Ltd.

The factory, a division of Sargood Son and Ewen, Ltd, will close because of New Zealand’s economic situation and, in particular, the state of the men’s clothing trade, according to the chairman of directors, Mr W. A. Ewen.

Of the 74 employees, about 50 are women.

Mr Ewen said today the company would do all it could to find jobs for them in its other factories in Dunedin. “We will give the maximum possible notice, and we will treat long-service employees as fairly as we possibly can,” he said. Mr Ewen said there was no question of the parent company establishing a replacement factory in Auckland, or anywhere else in New Zealand, to manufacture men’s clothing. In a statement, Mr Ewen said the decision to end the company’s operations would be put into effect between now and Christmas. “The decision has become necessary in the light of current circumstances and

future prospects, and only after every other avenue has been explored,” he added. Union View

The secretary of the Clothing Trade Union in Dunedin (Mr I. R. Powell) said tonight he would be lucky to place 20 per cent of the 74 redundant employees in other jobs within the trade.

“Where a company is feeling the pinch a little, and has to put off only three or four people, we can generally cope, or talk to the management and put up a proposition,” he said. “But in the case of a whole factory, the situation becomes very difficult. “The Trades Council has laid down a policy to deal with unemployment, but it will not cover it on this scale. The factory unit of Sargood Son and Ewen is one of the oldest established of its kind in Dunedin. Mr E. M. Friedlander, a director of Hallenstein Bros. Ltd, said in Dunedin today that there was no evidence among men’s clothing retailers in Dunedin that business was very bad.