'We just won’t move; we'll squat' Tait family sums up anger and plight of Clyde dam workers

Press, 14 July 1982, Page 15

'We just won’t move; we'll squat' Tait family sums up anger and plight of Clyde dam workers

Extensive news media coverage of the debate over the Clyde dam has tended to concentrate on the wider political and judicial interest of variously concerned parties, notably Wellington-based politicians.

As GEOFF MEIN found during a visit to Central Otago last week, the people of the region see the matter from a different perspective.

The article was written before last evening’s announcement by the Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) that the Government had accepted proposals from the Social Credit Political League to break the Clyde dam deadlock and save the jobs of the workers on the dam site. Photographs by DES WOODS.

Graham Tait was "over the moon" when he was offered a job in a Ministry of Works and Development concrete gang to build the Clyde high dam. He had been living in Christchurch with his wife, Ann. and five children since finishing work in a M.O.W.D. concrete gang al Twizel in 1980. Supporting a family of seven in Christchurch on an average weekly wage of about $lBO was tough. “When we shifted back to Christchurch we found we went downhill moneywise. A luxury was a number eight chicken on a Sunday for a roast. We never lived in Christchurch. . . we just existed." It was the prospect of shift . work, numerous allowances, and a low' house rental that drove Mr Tait to apply for a job with the M.O.W.D. on the Clutha Valley Development. When the telegram from the employment officer at Cromwell arrived three months ago, Mr Tait needed little time to consider the job offer. He was assured of 15 years employment, on shift work, earning good money.He was so excited that although he gave his Christ-, church employer a week’s notice, he lasted only until 10 a.m. the next day. "I was over the moon, like a big baby, an overgrown schoolboy. I asked them to make up my pay because I wanted to get away at din-ner-time." He went home, got into his 1958 Vauxhall. and headed south. The car seized 'at Tarras so he abandoned it on the side of the road and hitched a ride for the remaining 30km to Cromwell.

(He later heard that a “cocky" had claimed the vehicle and turned it into a stock car.) Mr Tait started work with the concrete gang at Clyde the next day.

Most of the contents of his first two pay packets were sent to Christchurch for Ann to pay the bills and feed the children. After the first month, he was eligible for a new three-bedroom house in the M.O.W.D. township which sprang up at Cromwell to accommodate dam workers and their families.

He managed to get a bank loan of $6OO to shift the family to Cromwell. The “downhill" trend which had characterised their existence in Christchurch virtually reversed overnight. In Christchurch, one-third of his pay went on rent. His last pay at Cromwell was $644 in the hand for a fortnight, out of which he had to pay a weekly rent of just $4. “We were absolutely broke when we left Christchurch.

We didn't have a cent to our name," he says. "I could afford to put only $5 worth of petrol in' the car each week. God knows how many times I ran out of petrol. “The money is so good here (in Cromwell), you can really live. The wife can not only cook a number eight chicken, she can put a leg of lamb in beside it." The Taits’ future looked bright. Bills and loans were paid off, the children settled into a new school, and the family expected to move into a new, four-bedroomed house in August. Graham Tait looked forward to many years work on the handful of dams which the Government planned to build on the Clutha and Kawarau Rivers. And in 15 years there was the prospect of retiring in his home on the banks of Lake Dunstan, the reservoir to be formed behind the Clyde high dam. Then, late last month, the Government, dropped its bombshell. Facing defeat if

he brought dam-empowering legislation into Parliament. Mr Muldoon announced that work would close down on the Clyde high dam project. Hundreds of men employed by the Ministry of Works were expected to be laid off.

Men like Graham Tait, who have been working at Clyde for only a few months, will almost certainly be the first to go. They, are also at ( the bottom of the list for redundancies.

There is no guarantee that the Taits will keep their, house; even if they do, the rent is likely to increase significantly if Mr Tait is laid off. He cannot afford to shift the family back to Christchurch, and banks are not expected to loan money to a man without work.

“There's nothing I can do. There’s no way I could shift out. especially back to Christchurch. To rent a house in Christchurch suitable for five kids, I would be looking at between $7O and $BO a week.

"If I get laid off I'll have to go on the dole, which is about $147 a week. If the rent stayed the same we could probably survive on the dole. We’d just have to suffer it out. Luxuries would be out for a start. There'd be no new jeans for the kids. "The guy next door left a $27,000-a-year labouring job at Tiwai Point and sold his house to move here about the same time as I did. He’s got two small boys and he’s really pissed off." Mr Tait is fortunate not to have bought goods on hire purchase. "I’m one of the lucky ones." he says. "A guy down the road has just bought carpet, a lounge suite, and a fridge on h.p.- A workmate . in my concrete gang has worked out that he needs $220 a week just to pay his bills. “One bloke is paying $l2O a week off a mortgage on his house in Alexandra. He’s really freaking out. . . going round the twist. He’s driving me nuts at work. . . he doesn't know what to do." Morale of the workers on the site is “shot to pieces." Many are taking time off, and using up their sick leave because they know they will not be paid out if they are laid off in the next few weeks. “The attitude on the work site is pretty bad. Everywhere you go people are talking about the job, the redundancies. . . just waiting for the pink slips to come out. “You hear so many bloody stories. One minute you're • smiling, the next minute you’ve got your head between your legs. Its got to the stage where if you see someone coming, you duck

down the side of a building to get away from talking about it."

Arguments over the dam are common in Cromwell's hotels.

"There were a couple of scraps in the top pub on Saturday night. One guy got punched out in an argument about the dam. Someone piped up and said he’d been with the Ministry for 'lB months and that a guy who'd been there a couple of months would be laid off before him. Bang, bang. . .

down he went.” Mr Tait blames the Government for his predicament. “The workers are a bit hard on Rowling at the moment for not letting McDonnell abstain. Yet they admire Rowling for going along with the law of the land. I admire him for it. If I went out and broke the law I'd be arrested smartly.

"But on the other hand, I'd like to see them break the law so I can keep the job for

another 15 years. I reckon the high dam is the story. It's going to do so . much for Otago, it's not even funny. Mind you. it wound't worry me if they built a low dam as long as they just got on with it and kept me in a job. "When it boils down to it, it’s everybody's fault. They're all squabbling over it. Why can't we have a Government where, if Muldoon comes up with an idea, instead of Rowling saying its no good and should be scrapped completely, he says: 'Well, listen Rob, its a bloody good idea but we’ve got a few ideas to improve it. Let’s talk it out’.” The workers at Clyde want an end to the uncertainty. Graham Tait and many of his workmates say that if they are laid off they will squat in their houses. “I just won’t move.- And every day I’ll be hoping and praying that I’ll turn on the news and they'll say that the dam's going ahead."