Sawmill job cuts ‘will hurt town’
Dozens more Waikato sawmill workers have lost their jobs, as the forestry industry grapples with closures and job losses across the country.
Spectrum Group Ltd, which owns RH Tregoweth, has confirmed 35 of the 48 staff at the Te Kuiti plant had been made redundant.
The losses would hurt the rural town, the Waitomo Mayor says, which has a population of about 4200.
It comes as the forestry industry deals with nationwide disruption, exacerbated by the coronavirus affecting Kiwi exporters.
But Spectrum Group’s Managing Director Wade Glass said the main problem was the price of a pruned log has steadily increased since the company bought the mill about two and a half years ago.
The average cost has risen from about $152 per cubic metre to $195 per cubic metre, Glass said.
Domestic sawmills were paying more for pruned logs than exporters, he said.
Wade said in some cases local forest owners were pitting sawmills against each other to try to get the lowest price.
‘‘Within the forestry industry there should be more understanding of each other’s position’’.
Wade said making staff redundant was the last resort.
‘‘If anyone thinks we have been flippant about this decision they are wrong.’’
It was ‘‘absolutely horrible’’ telling staff they had lost their jobs, acknowledging that they had mortgages to pay and families to feed.
Waitomo Mayor John Robertson said for a town the size of Te Kuiti, that many job losses would hurt the community.
‘‘Some people have worked there for a long time,’’ Robertson said.
‘‘It is a tragedy for them, really.’’ But he acknowledged the industry was under a lot of pressure, amid the coronavirus.
It was clearly impacting the industry – including New Zealand’s industry – every day, he said.
Robertson understood the Ministry of Social Development had visited the plant this week, referring affected staff to relevant support services.
He sympathised with the families affected and said he’d help refer people to the right services whenever he could.
‘‘The plant has always been pretty special and important to Te Kuiti.’’
It’s been a rough few months for sawmills across the country.
The Te Kuiti plant is the second Waikato sawmill to see significant job losses in less than a month, after a Putaruru sawmill shut down in January.
About 60 holidaying staff were called with the news that they wouldn’t have a job to go back to after the summer break after Putaruru’s Pacific Pine timber processing and sawmill went into receivership.
News of the RH Tregoweth job losses came the same day a Whangarei mill confirmed its closure.
And it follows news of other forestry crews across New Zealand downing tools, as the coronavirus prompts contractors to close operations.
The infection prompted shutdowns which left few people working in Chinese ports, causing slowdowns which have an effect on Kiwi exporters and those who buy in Chinese products.
China is by far the biggest and most important market for New Zealand logs, the New Zealand Forest Owners association earlier told Stuff.