Efforts to get government to save mill

Union representatives will meet management at the Kaitaia Timber Company tomorrow to discuss the possible sale of the business.

About 60 workers at the mill, in Pukepoto Rd, Kaitaia, have been told by owners, Tanner Group Ltd (TGL), that the site would close, with most of those employed there out of a job from April 22.

A march organised by mill workers was set to take place yesterday but was called off after management agreed to meet the union.

Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) national secretary Andrew Little said the purpose of the meeting would be to find ways forward.

The best option was to find a buyer for the business so the workers could keep their jobs, he said.

"We would like to support or participate in the sale of the business to someone who wants to run it -- that will be a key topic of the conversations," he said.

The Government will also be asked to intervene to try to keep the mill open.

Te Tai Tokerau MP Dover Samuels met workers and management of the company this week.

He said he would approach the Ministry of Economic Development and community funding agencies to see if they could help.

"I know there is a lot of goodwill from the workers to keep the mill open and I will do all I can to help, including seeing if the Government can play a role," he said.

Mr Samuels said he had asked TGL to keep the workers on until a new owner was found for the mill.

TGL director David Warburton said he had already received several verbal expressions of interest from possible buyers of the mill.

But National Party forestry spokesman Brian Connell blames Government inaction for the mill having to close in the first place.

Mr Connell said Mr Samuels had a nerve asking the private company to keep workers on when government red tape and bureaucracy, lack of infrastructure or a reliable energy supply were all partly behind the closure.

However, the company cited the high value of the New Zealand dollar as the main cause of the closure and Mr Samuels says it was not even as simple as that.

"There are many other small timber mills around the country that have to deal with the high dollar but do so without having to close," Mr Samuels said.

He said after visiting the mill and talking to workers, it became obvious that part of the problem was that most of the mill's machinery was decades old and in need of upgrading.

The Kaitaia workers have set up a working party, which includes representatives of local iwi Te Rarawa and Te Aupouri and community groups, to investigate buying the plant themselves.

- NZPA