‘No’ to Southdown offer

Press, 26 September 1980, Page 4

‘No’ to Southdown offer

The Auckland Farmers’ Freezing Co-operative yesterday made" an offer to keep part of the- Southdown works open until next March, but the proposal was rejected by the Auckland Freezing Workers’ Union.

In a rapid series of developments in the Southdown closing countdown, the company appeared to be searching for a * way to cushion the effects of the shutdown, planned for October 17.

It suggested that, vzhile beef and pig processing would stil! cease on October’ 17, mutton and lamb slaughter might possibly be continued until March 31 next.

The Auckland Freezing Workers’ Union had issued the company with an ulti-i mafum on Tuesday that, if

the works did not stay open, the new lamb season would be ‘crippled by protest action.

However, when the company offered to keep the mutton chains open, the union rejected the suggestion out of hand. Mr F. E. Barnard, the union's president, said that the union executive had rejected the proposition, and the Southdown workers had been told of the decision.

The company’s board of directors heard a report on the developments yesterday, and later announced that its previous decision was confirmed, “that the Southdown plant will cease all slaughtering no later than October 17, 1980.”

The proposal would have allowed 300 people to work at Southdown for an additional five months. The

company said that the impact of 950 people entering the labour market' at/once would have been reduced/ The company’s general manager, Mr T. P. R. Gibson, said, “The company has made several proposals to date, including redundancy payments, paid time off to look for jobs, assistance with job seeking and, now, the possible postponement of shutting down the mutton chains. “All have been rejected, and there is now the threat of industrial action to hold up the new season, not only in our own province but throughout New Zealand.”

The decision to close Southdown had been made, Mr Gibson said, to protect the future of the company and its 4000 employees outside the Southdown works.