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Joinery firms to close

Four Christchurch joinery firms will close in the next few weeks, leaving 29 joinery workers redundant. The firms are the latest in a string of closings in the building industry in Canterbury in the last two years. The' biggest, the joinery division of H. W. Smith. Ltd. employs 12 joiners: it wiii close on April 20. The others are Joinery Services, Ltd, Woolston, which has gone into liquidation; L. D. Taylor, of Riccarton; and ' Rowses Joinery, Richmond. H. W. Smith’s joinery is one of the oldest in Christchurch and at its peak employed more than 40 workers.

The secretary of the Canterbury branch of the Carpenters’ and Related Trades Union (Mr J. Clough) said yesterday that joinery firms had been able to weather the storm well in the last year or two but the difficult economic times were now catching up with some of them. Membership of the union continued to dwindle as carpenters and joiners either left the trade or emigrated, he said. In 10 years, the membership of the New Zealand union had fallen from 20,000 to 12,000.

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Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19790328.2.50

Bibliographic details

Press, 28 March 1979, Page 6

Word Count
184

Joinery firms to close Press, 28 March 1979, Page 6

Joinery firms to close Press, 28 March 1979, Page 6