Aust, industry problems

Press, 3 December 1982, Page 10

Aust, industry problems

Australia’s automotive industry has been going through the doldrums in the last three months, with layoffs and retrenchments similar to those beginning in New Zealand, according to Mrs Wendy Davern, the national research officer for the Australian Vehicle Builders Employees’ Federation. Mrs Davern is in New Zealand with her husband, Mr Kevin Davern, national president of the Australian Insurance Employees’ Union, for a fortnight. “The problems we have faced in the last few months seem very similar to those being faced by the automotive industry in New Zealand now,” she said in Christchurch. “I have noticed, too, that some of your car dealers are offering special deals to get rid of the stockpiles of new cars. This has been happening in Australia for some time.” she said. Discounts and special offers, however, had not helped to sell enough cars to pull the Australian automotive industry out of the doldrums. “Tens of thousands of new cars are stockpiled in the yards at the moment. Everyone hopes that sales will pick up again in the New Year,” Mrs Davern said. In the meantime, workers

had agreed to take an extra week’s leave over Christmas, to avoid retrenchments and to reduce production, she said. “Employers have started offering voluntary retirement to those workers who will accept it. So far, we have lost 2000 workers this way. “Mitsubishi has put its workers on a four-day week, with a day’s less pay for all workers. The four-day week is becoming more frequent for car-assembly workers,” Mrs Davern said. All assemblers had gone on to a 38-hour week as part of an employment package

negotiated 12 months ago. to help prevent redundancies and maintain industrial stability, she said. “In the last 12 months, disputes have fallen off. There have been no major industrial disputes in the car industry in that time,” she said. “If we did not have the 38hour week, we w’ould have? lost many more jobs than we; have.” Mrs Davern said that the truck-building industry was even worse off than the car’ industry. “When the truckers are noE trucking, they are not buyingany trucks,” she said. “The' drought and the manufacturing and industrial slump; have meant that truckers arenot now moving freight so. much.” Rather than buy spare parts for their rigs, truckerswere using some of their big old rigs for spare parts.' Consequently, the spare parts industry was hurt. “There does not seem to be any light at the end of the tunnel, especially in the trucking industry. New cars, new designs give us hope, but they still will not take care of the stockpiles,” Mrs Devern said. “We can only hope that the extra week of non-production over Christmas will help move a lot of those cars in the stockpile."