ELE group collapse: Foodbank gets deliveries from Dave Letele, $25k Woolworths vouchers after 1000 tradies laid off before Christmas

Hundreds of workers sacked just before Christmas should get some love and help from the community today after a foodbank drive.

Mikee Santos this morning was working feverishly with volunteers to get food parcels ready for tradespeople who lost their jobs when labour hire company ELE Group collapsed a few days ago.

“We’re distributing more than 500 across New Zealand.”

Volunteers distribute food parcels on Sunday afternoon after the ELE Group collapse left hundreds of Filipino migrant workers facing an uncertain Christmas. Photo / Alex Burton

Santos, Union Network of Migrants’ co-ordinator, said he had “a big shout-out” for Woolworths, the Countdown supermarkets’ operators, which provided $25,000 worth of food vouchers.

He also said Dave Letele of Buttabean Motivation (BBM) turned up.

“You should have seen it, man. When they parked their car here, I almost cried.”

Mikee Santos told a photographer it was a Christmas miracle how quickly the donations arrived. Photo / Sylvie Whinray

Apart from deliveries at First Union at 120 Church St, Onehunga, Santos said Filipino groups were also making donations to laid-off workers outside Auckland.

“It’s a 48-hour challenge. We’re going to deliver.”

Santos said food packs would go to almost 700 people nationwide over two days.

He said the response after word of the foodbank initiative got out was heartening.

“I haven’t seen anything like it.”

Santos said volunteers, instead of preparing a feast for their own families today, were helping out in Onehunga.

Carpenter Guillermo Fabello is among hundreds of people out of work due to the ELE collapse. He is a permanent resident, but his wife and family only arrived in New Zealand a few months ago. Photo / Sylvie Whinray

“Every family and every soul should celebrate Christmas,” he said.

First Union general secretary Dennis Maga this afternoon said probably 300 packages had already been distributed at the Church St site.

“We’re quite overwhelmed,” he said, referring to the contributions made.

“The idea is that it’s traditional for Filipino families to celebrate Christmas Eve.”

Dennis Maga said hundreds of packages had been delivered by about 2pm on Sunday. Photo / Alex Burton

The collapse of ELE Group is estimated to have caused 1000 workers to lose their jobs.

About 750 of the abruptly sacked workers are Filipino.

Although many are in Auckland, others were working on sites around the country.

Santos earlier said ELE workers were also laid off from the National Library site at Molesworth St, Wellington.

Some workers were on Auckland Airport’s new transport hub. Others were at the airport’s new $200 million Mānawa Bay outlet centre.

Some Māori workers have missed out on jobs in the collapse.

ELE was due to get $3.5m in the next two years to support a scheme to hire more Māori.

ELE went into receivership on Wednesday, December 20.

Related transport business Tranzport Solutions was also in receivership.

On Friday, Immigration NZ said it had identified 255 migrant workers linked to ELE Limited, mostly builders, labourers and carpenters.

AFFECTED WORKERS CAN EMAIL AEWVworkerresponse@mbie.govt.nz FOR HELP WITH IMMIGRATION ISSUES. For donations to sacked ELE workers, there is a BNZ account with the number 02-0528-0575777-001 for Banyuhay Aotearoa, a not-for-profit Filipino community organisation. There is a Migrante Aotearoa Kiwibank account with the number 38-9015-0783387-01.