Redundant for a third time

Press, 1 April 1981, Page 11

Redundant for a third time

PA Masterton A Masterton process worker, Bruce Mahoney, aged 30, has lost his third job in two years after the shock announcement of the closing of the Phillip -Morris cigarette factory. His wife, a mother of two, is herself only just back at work again having been made redundant in March after 6¥a years at Atlas With two children, aged nine and 10, and a mortgage to pay on a house bought only nine months ago, the couple were dazed after the announcement. “Masterton is going to be a ghost town if it keeps on going like this," Mrs Mahoney said. Mr Mahoney was home ill witli flu when he first heard of his company’s closing op the radio. “I didn’t have an inkling they were thinking of closing,” he said. I However, he was still able to grin about his family’s job problems over the last two

years, and to say: “v’a will’ • manage so long as one Of ushas a job. There are a lot of people worse off." Mr Mahoney’s main occupation is a truck driver, but he was laid off by Oldfields Asphalts, Ltd, in June, 1979, when the firm dismissed three of its drivers after a down-turn in work. ' He was unemployed for a few weeks, got some casual work, and then joined Atlas Majestic, where his wife had been a process worker for the last 6Vz years. He was made redundant there in April, 1980, with a lot of other workers dismissed in yet another “downturn.” He was unemployed for about two weeks before - landing a “permanent” job as a process worker with Phillip Morris in May, 1989. Now that has gone “down the drain,” and the only breadwinner in the household is his wife with her new job at Standard Telephone and Cables (N.Z.), Ltd.