Wives want to work the mill

Press, 1 September 1986, Page 1

Wives want to work the mill

PA Wellington Three wives whose husbands are among 800 Tas-, man mill-workers to be laid off on Wednesday, plan a protest rally at the main gates of the plant at Kawerau today. The women want the morning’s rally to be for the wives of all workers in the town. Tasman’s director of operations, Mr Graham Ogilvie, has agreed to meet them at the gates at 9.30 a.m.

The women said they would ask him if his staff could teach them how to work the paper machines so they could run the mill.

“We know we-can’t and he will tell us that,” said an organiser. “But that is what we plan to do.”

The woman, whose husband is a maintenance worker on the site, said she was angry, frightened and sad.

“We feel helpless,” she

Another woman said feelings were running high about the closedown. “If we don’t do something the town is going to go and we’ve lost everything that we have worked for 20 years.”

The , president of the Federation of Labour, Mr Jim Knox, will address a meeting of pulp and paper workers in the Kawerau Hair on Thursday. The assistant secretary of the Northern Federation of Pulp and Paper Workers, Mr Harold Appleton, said Mr Knox was unable to attend any earlier.

Mr Ogilvie said he was concerned about the delay. Workers had a big decision to make about a return to work but their leadership was depriving them of a chance to address the issues quickly. Further reports, page 3