Kawerau businessmen fear mothballing

Press, 25 August 1986, Page 3

Kawerau businessmen fear mothballing

PA Wellington Kawerau’s commercial community could not survive a six-month mothballing of .the Tasman Pulp and Paper Mill, say local businessmen.

Mr Tony Goer, a former Tasman Mill union delegate turned hardware retailer, was on the verge of tears when he spoke about the town’s future. “We love this town. I have brought up seven children here and 13 grandchildren. It is our town,” he said. Mr Goer has lived in Kawerau for 30 years, 25 of them as a Tasman mill worker.

“I can understand the men’s concern about the way they feel about certain aspects of their job being jeopardised,” he said.

His business has been

on a knife edge since 1983.

The shop had only just recovered from last year’s strike when the pulp and paper workers decided to go off work five weeks ago. “I am just hoping. I belong to Rotary and this year the theme we are pushing is hope,” he said. His business neighbour, Mr Dennis Jackson, said trade in his electrical appliance store was suffering. Like Mr Goer he had to lay off three shop staff and one from his workshop. “I am quite happy to ride the storm if the town can be sorted out into a reasonably stable situation afterwards,” he said. Mr Jackson’s wife, Pam, is the manager of a local real estate company. She said business had

dropped away completely since the company announced the shutdown.

“It’s dead,” she said.

Surprisingly, said Mrs Jackson, only one couple had decided to sell up since the decision on Tuesday. “Real estate falls away, nothing happens, everybody just sits back and waits; but I wouldn’t say the prices of houses drop because of a strike,” she said.

The town had not had a long enough strike for the prices of houses to be affected. If the mill did close, however, the situation would be serious, she said.

Ms Carol Davies said she had had to lay off two staff from her clothing retail shop.

“We will just have to carry on as best we can.

What else can we do?” she said.

The president of the Kawerau Chamber of Commerce, a sports shop owner, Mr Mike Sims, said he was also going to sit out. the dispute. “I am disappointed. It is a town that has good income per capita because of the overtime and shift work. It is a boom town under normal circumstances.” He said that if every Tasman disruption had a four-week lag period, because of the shortage of money, business in Kawerau had been financially affected for 26 weeks out of the last 11 months.

All the business people spoken to agreed the town would not survive if the mill was mothballed for Six months.