Southdown closes down

Press, 1 May 1981, Page 3

Southdown closes down

PA Auckland The last mutton kill at the Southdown Freezing Works was completed on Wednesday, and about 160 slaughtermen were paid off early vesterdav after the final cattle kill.

Apart from a small team, who will stay on for a short time to help with tidying-up work, the rest of the 650 workers will be paid off today — ending Southdown’s 76-year history.

The President of the Freezing Workers Union’s Southdown branch, Mr Jim Forbes, said that he was sad to see men he had represented for 13 years going out the gate for the last time.

Of 96 mutton butchers.

only five had found jobs. They had been offered jobs at Auckland Farmers’ Freezing Co-operative’s Horotiu plant, but for many men with families it was too far to travel.

Mr Forbes said that those who would be worst hit by the closing were unskilled workers and those aged over 40.

“That's what worries me. A lot of them started here as boys and their fathers were here before. I fail to see how many of our boys would qualify for the jobs the Labour Department has on its board," he said. The department, which set up a job centre at the works last week, has been able to

place only one person in a job so far. More than 100 have registered at the centre as unemployed. The employment officer, Mr Frank Keaton, said that the department would not know how many could be placed in jobs until Monday: The centre, staffed by six officers from the Auckland and Manukau Labour Department offices, will remain at the works until today.

After closing last year, the plant was reopened in January with more than 600 of the original workforce of 900, while an independent study of the closing was made. A company spokesman said that the closing had cost

AFFCO about $4.5 million in redundancy payments. Although slaughter stopped yesterday, about 80 of the workforce will stay on for varying periods in several departments. They include chamberhands and workers in the works stockinette bag shop, fellmongery, freezers, and airfreight chillers. The fellmongery is expected to continue processing skins from AFFCO’s other works until the end of the

lamb season. Meat worth tens of thousands of dollars remains in chillers and freezers, and much of this is not likely to be exported for some time until shipping becomes available.