Promising proposal on P.D.L. factory

Press, 28 January 1988, Page 1

Promising proposal on P.D.L. factory

By

RICHARD CRESSWELL,

Industrial reporter One of the proposals for the doomed P.D.L. Westport factory looked “quite promising,” said the secretary of the Canterbury branch of the Engineers Union, Mr Bob Todd, last evening.

P.D.L. Industries, Ltd, last week announced the Westport factory would close in 10 weeks with the loss of 52 jobs. Mr Todd said two groups had shown an interest in the plant. He would not say who those groups were. He said P.D.L. had already decided to close the plant and there was only a very remote chance a P.D.L. company would run it.

The proposals would look at quite a different use of the plant. Mr Todd said it was unlikely

all the jobs at the site would be retained under the new proposals. The P.D.L. company had offered the redundant workers jobs in a Christchurch plant but he did not know of any workers taking up the offer. A feasibility study, funded by the union, on keeping the plant at Westport going would be released at a meeting of business interests and the West Coast community on Tuesday. The union was also hoping to get some assistance for the cost of the study through the West Coast Regional Development Council. A previous application had been refused, but that had been before the factory had closed, he said. The chairman of P.D.L. Holdings, Ltd, Sir Robertson Stewart,

said there was no chance the firm would reopen or keep the site going. A redundancy deal had been negotiated with the union.

The offer to work at P.D.L. in Christchurch had been made to the laid-off workers, but most appeared to prefer to stay on the West Coast, he said. P.D.L. was now being restructured and the company was looking at expansion overseas. The restructuring would not mean a loss of jobs in Christchurch.

“There were three things I wanted to do: make New Zealand goods, export them, and use New Zealanders to do it.” Sir Robertson said the Labour Government, through its policies, had told him he was “all wrong.”