Fisher and Paykel move is the way ahead - union

Fisher and Paykel’s $83.3 million purchase of an American appliance maker is a sign that New Zealand manufacturers can foot it in the face of global competition, says the country’s largest union.

Auckland-based white manufacturer Fisher and Paykel today announced it had purchased Dynamic Cooking Systems, the leading United States manufacturer and distributor of premium cooking appliances.

Andrew Little, national secretary of the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union which represents Fisher and Paykel employees in New Zealand, says that the move is heartening for manufacturing workers across the country.

“Workers in the manufacturing sector are well aware of the potential threat that globalisation poses to their jobs,” he said.

“China is gearing up to take on the West at manufacturing; that doesn’t mean the end of manufacturing in New Zealand, but we’ve got to change the way in which we think and operate. We’ve got to be able to foot it internationally, and that’s exactly what Fisher and Paykel is doing. It’s showing that it’s got global reach.”

Mr Little said that the fact that an appliance manufacturer in New Zealand had the skills and resources to go out and buy a major American manufacturer was a tribute to the skills and dedication of Fisher and Paykel workers and managers.

© Scoop Media

EPMU - Engineering Printing and Manufacturing Union

Proudly representing New Zealand workers

The EPMU is a democratic union representing over thirty thousand members in ten industries across New Zealand.
By standing together in a union workers get higher wages and better conditions.
As the country's biggest private sector union the EPMU can provide members with workplace representation, legal advice, a freephone support centre, work rights education and broad representation through the EPMU's campaigning and research work.
We campaign for fairness at work and a strong economy based on skilled jobs and investment in manufacturing.

CONTACT EPMU - ENGINEERING PRINTING AND MANUFACTURING UNION

• Website - www.epmu.org.nz/
• Media Contact - Stephanie Rodgers
• Twitter - @EPMU

• Link to - Media Releases
• Facebook

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>