Work hard to get for Rakaia women

Press, 15 November 1977, Page 9

Work hard to get for Rakaia women

By BRENDA MILES The closure of M. O’Brien and Company’s footwear factory at Rakaia has had a far-reaching effect on a dozen women who worked there before it closed. The factory closed last June, leaving 17 people out of work. Five of these commute to the main factory in Christchurch tp work, but the others are still drawing unemployment benefit after jobhunting for nearly six months. Barbara Prescott, one of the single girls who have been left without jobs, has become used to being on the “dole.” She gets $31.50 a week and has been living on it since the factory closed. She has no prospect of getting another job soon. Why do these girls not go to Christchurch to work, like the others? It is money. The women who go the 65km to Christchurch each day are married with children. Because of this they only work five hours a day. Barbara Prescott is 17. She said it would not be worth her while spending time and money travelling for 25 hours’ work a week. She would not earn

as much as the older women. Barbara worked at the footwear factory for a year before it closed. The factory employed more than 20 people. All managerial staff now work at the Christchurch branch of O’Brien’s. She said that although rumours went around the factory some time before it closed, the workers were only given official notice a week before they were laid off. Despite pleas that the single girls be given work for a month before the factory closed, they found themselves without jobs with little prior notice. Barbara Prescott has tried to get a job in Rakaia since she and 11 other women found themselves without an income in June. But nothing has been forthcoming. She is prepared to travel to find work, and recently asked Ashburton Hospital for a job as a ciearner. But to no avail; it seems jobs for women in Mid-Canterbury, especially in the Rakaia area, are scarce. Another organisation employing many people in Rakaia closed down in June. The Rakaia telephone exchange went automatic and six operators were dismissed.

This case is different from the footwear factory though. The five women and one man employed by the Post Office knew that the exchange would go automatic some time this year. They were therefore classed as temporary workers, who knew their jobs would end. None of them have found other work. But their situations are not as serious as the six single girls left unemployed by O’Brien’s closure. The five women are married and don’t really need a second income. The man owns his own farm. But the fact still remains that women in Rakaia are finding it hard to get work. No specific job figures were available for the Rakaia area. But a spokesman for the Social Welfare Department said 26 women and 16 men were unemployed in the Ashburton area. When asked to compare the number of unemployed in Rakaia with Methven — a town about the same size — he said Rakaia had more unemployment than Methven. But Methven is near a tourist centre, the Mount Hutt ski-field and this is always a source of work for local people.