Christchurch factory to close, 275 to lose jobs

Saturday, 24 October 2009

Christchurch tyre workers were stunned after being called to a meeting to hear the Bridgestone-Firestone factory will be closed by Christmas, with the loss of 275 jobs.

The decision by the Japanese-based Bridgestone company yesterday is another blow to the city, which has seen hundreds of recent layoffs, including the shock receivership of Lane Walker Rudkin Industries in April.

Business leaders said the job losses would hit not only the workers and their families, but also the wider manufacturing sector.

The tyre-manufacturing plant opened in 1947 and has been known as the Firestone factory even after the merger of global tyre giants Bridgestone and Firestone in 1998.

The Papanui plant has had temporary shutdowns over the past two years and was closed at the time of yesterday's announcement.

Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union spokesman Ged O'Connell said that generations of Papanui families had worked at the plant, and its Christmas closure would hurt.

'There's a lot of history on this site, with some members having worked here 45 years and some being the second and third generation of their families to have worked here, so it is a very sad day for all of us,' he said.

Bridgestone Australia also announced the closure of a South Australian plant by April 30, with 600 Adelaide jobs axed.

Bridgestone senior executive director Andrew Moffatt said the decision to close the Christchurch factory had been made by the Bridgestone Australia board.

The group had more efficient plants in Japan, Thailand and Indonesia, with products now imported into New Zealand, he said.

The worldwide recession has hit car manufacturing hard, but Moffatt said the downturn had no influence on the decision to close, which had left workers 'sad and disappointed'.

'Despite continued efforts to improve cost competitiveness at both factories, international competitive forces had made tyre manufacturing increasingly difficult, to the point where the operations in both countries are no longer viable,' he said.

The Papanui plant had been losing money for several years, Moffatt said.

Bridgestone's distribution, customer service and retail networks, which employed about 825 people in New Zealand, would not be affected, he said.

A factory worker, who did not want to be named, said staff were called on Thursday night and told to attend the meeting at 4pm yesterday.

'We knew what it was about,' he said. 'The writing's been on the wall for quite some time.'

The mood at the meeting was 'incredibly quiet', with no questions from the floor.

'They basically read the statement and walked off the stage,' he said. 'They [management] were pretty cut up about it. They've been trying hard to keep it open.'

Kerry Pearce, secretary of the Rubber Workers' Union, which represents nearly 200 workers at the plant, said the announcement was 'met with shock'.

'It's always been in the back of our mind that something like this would happen, with the global recession and the tyre and manufacturing industry worldwide, but people were shocked,' he said.

A machinery engineer said he understood the company pumped about $24m a year into the Christchurch economy, so its closure was a big loss for the community.

A laboratory technician said the realisation of losing his job would 'probably kick in in a day or so'.

'I'll wake up tomorrow with a bit of a hangover and will have to be thinking of the future,' he said.

Employees were told they would receive their full entitlements, but Moffatt would not detail what those payouts would be.

Canterbury Employers' Chamber of Commerce chief executive Peter Townsend said unemployment in the region was expected to peak between 6 percent and 7 percent.

It is now just over 6 percent.