Workers at Canterbury Yarns need redundancy support

Workers faced with redundancy at Canterbury Yarns need a redundancy support co-ordinator, Green Party industrial relations spokesperson Denise Roche said today.

Last week, Canterbury Yarns was placed in receivership. Canterbury Yarns joins a long list of New Zealand manufacturers who have been driven to the wall by a high New Zealand dollar and hands off approach from the National Government to their concerns.

“Redundancy support co-ordinators have assisted staff faced with the trauma of redundancy in other textile manufacturing closures,” said Ms Roche.

“Many workers have spent their entire adult working lives at Canterbury Yarns. It is vital that they are given the best possible support to retrain and find employment within Canterbury.

“The National Government itself needs to take part of the blame for yet more job losses in the manufacturing sector.

“National’s preoccupation with its failed asset sales programme and fossil fuel exploration has meant it has dismissed concerns from those people employed in manufacturing.

“In government, the Green Party will focus on adding more value to our exports,” Ms Roche said.

“We should be exporting high-value, high-tech goods made from the resources that we produce.

“That would create jobs and wealth here in New Zealand. Instead, we are just exporting those raw commodities and letting other countries capture the value of manufacturing them while Kiwi workers pay the price.”

Last year the Green Party, along with Labour, New Zealand First and the Mana Party released a report that looked at problems within the manufacturing sector and solutions.

Link to the report of the Parliamentary Inquiry into Manufacturing:

http://www.greens.org.nz/misc-documents/report-parliamentary-inquiry-manufacturing

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