Staff reel at grim tidings

Press, 12 September 1987, Page 1

Staff reel at grim tidings

Stunned silence was how the workers at Crown Crystal Glass received yesterday’s announcement that they would lose their jobs when the plant closes in six weeks. But to many it came as no shock. Since the shutting of one of the plant’s machine lines last year there had been rumours of further cuts. “It was no surprise. Everybody had an idea something was coming,” said Mr Arthur Page, a glass sorter, after the announcement yesterday. Mr Page has worked at the plant for about two years. A colleague, Mr Graham Luscombe, has been at the Hornby plant much longer. Starting “at the -bottom” just two years after the plant opened, he is now a glass inspector. The workers had heard the news of the closing in silence, he said. “Everyone now has to look for other jobs. I’ll be looking but there won’t be anything in glass production going.” Mr Luscombe said the company had been a good employer in his 34 years at the plant. The workers were told of the decision to close the Christchurch plant yesterday afternoon. The 3 p.m. shift arrived for work and went to the meeting where Mr Dudley Jamieson, general, manager of A.C.l.’s Glass Products Group, told them they would be redundant in six weeks. Late yesterday afternoon the plant — which usually works around the clock — was virtually deserted. It has been closed for the week-end to give workers a chance to absorb the news. They were given written confirmation of Mr Jamieson’s statement as they left yesterday’s meeting. A spokesman for the company, Mr David Lawson, said work would resume on Monday. An office for the Labour Department would be set up on site next week to help workers find jobs. Mr Lawson said the redundancies were “across the board” affecting assembly line workers and white-collar staff. There was no possibility of placing Christchurch people at the A.C.I. plant in Auckland. Fifty people had been laid off from that plant only a few weeks ago.