Dismissals in Canterbury clothing industry

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32862, 10 March 1972, Page 1

Dismissals in Canterbury clothing industry

(By our industrial reporter) About 150 Canterbury clothing workers have either been given notice this week or will be laid off within a month. Of these, about 120 are Christchurch workers.

Kaiapoi Textiles, Ltd, will close its factories at Timaru and Burnham at the end of this month, will cut by half the staffing of its factory in Allen Street, Christchurch, and will reduce by nearly one-third the staffing of its Hornby factory.

Skellerup Industries, Ltd, is closing its factory in Cranford Street, Christchurch, and has given notice to about 35 workers. Mr R. A. Hill, secretary of the Clothing Workers’ Union and of the Canterbury Trades Council, said yesterday that the future of Christchurch as a manufacturing centre was bleak. Clothing workers, he said, would have to join the trek of industries and workers to the North Island. The manager of Kaiapoi Textiles (Mr R. R. Gilchrist) said that his company’s measures were directed to-

ward improving liquidity. In addition to reducing the number of factory sites, the company was discontinuing the production of a considerable range of products where the selling prices had not been sufficient to recover the heavy cost increases—particularly in wage rates and payroll tax—incurred over the last year.

RADLEY FACTORY At the beginning of this year, Kaiapoi Textiles began closing down its Radley factory in Christchurch. This meant the dismissal of about 100 workers and the transfer of another 100 to other premises. Although there has been no declared redundancy at the Kaiapoi Woollen Mills, dismissals and resignations over the last year have reduced staff by 117.

When the present reorganisation has been completed, another 32 workers will have been laid off in Timaru, 13 in Hornby, and about 70 in Christchurch. No further reduction in staff is planned. Mr Gilchrist said the company recognised a responsibility to its longer-service employees and would do all it could to minimise the impact of redundancy. Financial compensation for Radley workers with more than two

years service had been agreed between the company and the Radley branch of the Woollen Workers’ Union, and similar compensation was envisaged for the workers affected now. PENSION SCHEME The company also has a pension scheme for which workers are eligible after two years service, and it appears they will receive some but not all of the money the firm has paid into the scheme. Mr Gilchrist said the company had approached other firms to see if the Timaru plant and workers could be let on a sub-contracting basis. There had been no response so far; a register of the workers would be kept so they could be offered any work which might become available.

The Timaru and Radley factories and the company’s premises at Allen and Manchester Streets are all up for sale. Mr Gilchrist said the future plans of the company were based on consolidating its position in the market with a labour force of slightly more than 200 employed in making up garments. Orders were coming in at a good level for the firm’s range of garments for next summer. Productivity had improved at the Kaiapoi Mills, he said, and the mills had increased their market share of certain products. A substantial export order for wool tops had been received within the last few weeks, and this had com-

pensated—in part, at least—for the depressed state of the New Zealand piecegoods market. CRANFORD STREET Mr V. R. Skellerup, managing director of Skellerup Industries, said he hoped the closing of the Cranford Street factory was only temporary. He hoped it would be possible to reopen it in two months or less, but added that it would be necessary to look at the profit angle carefully first.

The workers had all been offered employment in the city centre, but only five had transferred, he said. The other 35 were given notice on Tuesday.

The factory production has mostly been industrial garments, such as parkas and wet-weather trousers.

Skellerup Industries closed its New Brighton clothing factory last year, and laid off other workers on grounds of redundancy.

Mr Hill said there were probably more workers with very long service employed by Kaiapoi Textiles than by the majority of other clothing factories in Christchurch, and they would have the greatest difficulty in obtaining suitable work. He said union officers would call on the Kaiapoi Textlies workers first thing this morning and would seek discussions with the management on redundancy payments and the protection of superannuation entitlements.