Clothing workers lose jobs

Press, 7 July 1977, Page 6

Clothing workers lose jobs

Twenty women part-time workers at the Christchurch factory of Lane Walker Rudkin, Ltd. have been made redundant. The women, who were involved in clothing manufacture, were given notice on Tuesday. The managing director of Lane Walker Rudkin (Mr N. H. Rudkin) said that the workers had been laid off because there was a lack of! work, but he did not know: the specific reason for this.! However, on April 20 Mr Rudkin was quoted in “The; Press” as predicting that the cuts in clothing exports made, under new terms of the New') Zealand-Australia Free Trade) Agreement would cause un-j employment in New Zealand.)

Mr Rudkin said then that cuts might be as high as 2600 throughout the industry. He said that his company had been forced to curtail its Invercargill activities for this reason.

On May' 7, Mr Rudkin was quoted as saying that the results of New Zealand’s restricted entry to the Australian market meant his company was trying to rationalise its activities, and that this would “certainly include job casualties.”