Closing of bottler opposed

Press, 4 December 1981, Page 7

Closing of bottler opposed

The Allied Liquor Trades Union was still opposed to the closing of the West Coast's last soft drink bottling plant, Grogans and Blackmores Cordials, Ltd, at Greymouth, the union's South Island secretary, Mr G. G. Walker. has said in Christchurch. The company, a subsidiary of Baliins Industries, Ltd. was to have closed at the end of December, but Ballins has agreed to a union demand for the deadline to be extended to the end of February. Mr Walker said that it was Federation of Labour policy to resist redundancies. The. union also was concerned that the West Coast might become a dumping ground

for non-returnable bottles and cans. Mr G. P. Mensforth, the general manager of Southern Bottlers, Ltd, a Ballins subsidiary. said that while the parent company had agreed to the extension closing date it was debatable whether the plant would still be bottling by the end of February because the skilled staff were leaving. Most of the five workers now had other jobs to go to, and one had already left. If the old machinery broke down from now on, bottling would have to stop. Mr Mensforth denied that the West Coast would be supplied with non-returnable bottles only.- It would get the full range’of soft drinks, he said.