A wedding off and a life on hold as mill closure sinks in

Friday, 29 November 2024

Kirby Chitty and her fiancé both work at Kinleith Mill and have postponed their wedding until the mill’s owners decide on their future.

Kirby Chitty has postponed her wedding and thoughts have already crossed her mind about a move to Australia as her future at Kinleith Mill hangs in the balance.

Tokoroa born and bred, Chitty and her fiancé both work at the timber town's largest employer, have four children - the youngest about to turn two - and a significant mortgage after buying a new house big enough to house their tiny tribe last year.

'We're in a really hard spot - we are in limbo, everything is up in the air right now, and it's not a great place to be,“ she told the Waikato Times.

The Japanese owners of Kinleith Mill, Oji Fibre Solutions, have proposed cutting up to 230 jobs at the mill.

“We have family and friends on site, my dad works here - has done for 30-odd years - my partner's here, my brother in law, plus some cousins and an uncle.”

Chitty holds great fears for the people of Tokoroa, and while the news of major job cuts at the mill were still sinking in, she said many people won’t be having a very merry Christmas.

“It does seem like they always make these decisions at Christmas, so it’s not ideal.

After recently buying a new house, Kinleith Mill worker Kirby Chitty said her family had already started to tighten their belts as they face an uncertain future.

“No-one [in management] is really saying anything, so it’s hard to know what’s really going on, but we’re not that hopeful anything will change.”

Chitty is a qualified boiler and turbine operator and started at the mill as an apprentice in 2011, she said there were not a lot of places in New Zealand where she could take her specialised skills.

“Maybe [I’ll go] back to study, or whatever we can get locally, and possibly Australia - it's definitely an option we are considering.'

However, most of Chitty's family live in the South Waikato, and with young kids it would be a hard decision to move to Australia for work.

She also has fears for her friends who run small businesses in Tokoroa, who would feel the effects of mass layoffs almost as much as mill workers.

“Unfortunately, we have already started to tighten our belts, we had a wedding coming up and we have postponed that because we don’t have to spend all that money if we don’t have jobs.

“It’s actually heart-breaking thinking about having four little mouths to feed without a job.”