The commitment by the New Zealand Labour Party to support Kiwi jobs instead of contracting them overseas will be welcomed in the Wigram electorate, according to Labour candidate Megan Woods.

Labour leader Phil Goff has promised that Labour will introduce new policies which will require companies like KiwiRail to consider wider economic and social benefits rather than just taking a narrow accounting approach when making future decisions, such as buying new rolling stock.

Megan Woods said that Labour’s policy would protect the future of KiwiRail depots such as the Middleton yards in the Wigram electorate where locomotives are currently serviced and maintained for operational use.

“KiwiRail workers have been particularly concerned at decisions such as the recent one by KiwiRail to buy rolling stick from China rather than have it made in New Zealand”, said Ms Woods. “The more of these jobs that are sent overseas, the less secure other KiwRail employment becomes in New Zealand.”

Megan Woods visited the Middleton rail yards in Wigram yesterday with Labour’s Finance spokesperson David Cunliffe where they took the opportunity to discuss the potential impacts of job losses at Dunedin’s Hillside Workshops with local workers.

Ms Woods said that workers were also concerned at Nationals promise to sell off publicly owned assets. “These workers know only too well the fiasco that occurred when New Zealand railways was previously sold to overseas interests”, she said. “If power companies are allowed to be sold, it is inevitable that others such as rail will follow soon after. Last time that happened, thousands of jobs were lost and rail services were so badly run down that the last Labour Government had no option but to buy it back.”

Ms Woods said that, under a Labour Government, hundreds of jobs in Wigram would be protected, and that could only be good for the local community.

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