Economy
`Neglected’ paper mill workers finishing up
MORE than 50 Wesley Vale Paper Mill workers will join the job queue from today as the first of more than 250 Tas Paper workers to be forced into redundancy by the end of March.
Tas Paper managing director Jon Ryder confirmed 13 workers from the plant’s coating operation finished last night with further jobs to go in coming days.
“This follows the shutdown of the (Burnie mill’s) B4 machine in January and is part of our plan to have the Wesley Vale operation wound up by the end of March,” he said.
One worker who wished to remain unnamed said while he and his workmates were told of their final day of work before Christmas, they were frustrated by the lack of support shown by all tiers of government.
“We have hardly seen any of our local politicians and aldermen coming in or checking up on how we were going,” he said.
“It would just be nice to have a bit more support so that we felt wanted in our community.”
CFMEU pulp and paper secretary Alex Millar, who met with both Burnie and Wesley Vale workers last Friday, also criticised the company for its “abysmal” handling of redundancies.
“I think the company’s dealings with those redundant workers of the past six months has been nothing short of disgraceful,” he said.
“Those workers who have already finished up have not had any sort of acknowledgment of their contributions, not even those who have been there all of their working lives.”
Mr Millar said Tas Paper was also in negotiations with the union to see a further 20 jobs go from the Burnie site ready for a potential sale.
“There’s been no discussion about when and so far there’s been no agreement about whether or not what they’re suggesting is achievable,”
he said.