Time is right for works reunion

Endless banter and friendships made were key elements of life on the processing chains at Gisborne Refrigerating Company back in the day. Organisers of a reunion are aiming to get as many former freezing workers together as possible for a reunion next month. The works employed around 1000 people prior to its closure in 1994. This picture, featuring about 700 present and past workers, was taken in 1993 as a historical recording as plans were in place to demolish a stretch of the buildings. The works closed in 1994 and all standing buildings and structures, bar one on the corner of Crawford Road and the Esplanade, were demolished two years later.Herald file picture

The men organising the first reunion of freezing workers who worked at Gisborne Refrigerating Company (GRC) have wanted to do it for decades and say it’s long overdue.

Doug Symes, Robbie Blair and Wayne Tautau have planned a reunion to take place in the Cosmopolitan Club on Saturday, November 25.

“It will be 30 years next year that Weddel Kaiti closed and we all lost our jobs,” Mr Symes said. “People have often said that we should have a reunion of all our freezing worker mates but we have never got around to it till now. We reckon the time to do it is now — while there’s some of us still alive.”

Mr Blair said it was long overdue.

“It’s something that appeals to all of us; to get back together with old colleagues to share stories from the past. We were a big family over at the works.”

Mr Tautau said the works was a “generational place . . . a lot of guys left school and went to the works and that’s all they knew up until Weddell Kaiti shut in 1994.”

There were about 1000, mainly men, employed at GRC when it closed. Over the season that number rose to about 1200.

“The oldest former GRC worker we know of is now aged 95 and we hope he can come,” Mr Tautau said. “The youngest would be in his late 50s.”

The men said following the closure some of the workers went to other freezing works while others found new vocations, started new careers.

Mr Blair said they were all shocked at the time it happened.

“We all found out at the same time we were losing our jobs, which was not a nice position to be in. It’s something you have to experience to know what it’s like.”

The men were not offered redundancies, only their superannuation payouts.

“The company management all got redundancies. We got nothing.”

In hindsight, all three agreed they were glad to have lived through the freezing works experience.

“We had so many good times working on the chains and made so many good friends.”

But Mr Symes said it was not till you left that you realised how much working there meant.

“The stirring of your workmates, the endless banter. A lot of the older freezing workers died within a few years of the closure because they had nothing else to do, which was really sad.

“They missed their mates and the working environment at the GRC so much. It was their family.”

The men plan to have three speakers at the reunion — Nik Nikora, a former head foreman on the mutton chain; Wayne Muir, also a former foreman; and Tom Stevens, who was the union delegate.

The men want to reinforce that the reunion is for everyone.

“That’s former workers, their families, and those who have lost loved ones who worked there.”

They will be catering for 300.

“If we can get 200 there we’ll be very happy.”

The cost is $15 a person, with the registration money to be into the account number 06-0637-0817202-00, or by calling into the ANZ Bank.

“When depositing payment please record  your name as ‘particulars’, and your phone number as ‘reference’.

“Registations close on November 15.”

Any inquiries can be made to Doug Symes on 027-327-5928 at weekends or to Wayne Tautau on 027-430-7206.