Kiwirail: Don’t say you weren’t warned!

Clare Curran

This column (written by me) appeared in the Dunedin D Scene newspaper today

A parliamentary inquiry into manufacturing heard this week in Dunedin there are no quality checks on the manufacturing standards of the rail wagons imported from China - a contract which sounded the death knell for the Hillside workshops.

Common themes emerged at the day-long hearing with Hillside, NZ Aluminium Smelters, Oamaru’s Summit Woolspinners and the unions representing workers at those plants questioning tenders awarded to offshore companies over local providers based purely on lowest cost, rather than the true value to the whole of the economy; the impact of the high dollar on exports and indifference of government to keeping and building a skilled workforce in our communities.
One of the most chilling revelations was that there are no quality checks being undertaken on the standard of manufacture of the Chinese imported wagons.

Read the rest of this post here:

http://blog.labour.org.nz/2013/03/13/kiwirail-dont-say-you-werent-warned/

Clare Curran
MP for Dunedin South
MP for Dunedin South Spokesperson for Broadcasting, Communications and IT, Disability Issues and Open Government

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