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SYDNEY - Australia's textile union is blaming the federal government's trade policies for the imminent closure of Blundstone's boot factories in Hobart and Auckland, and warns more jobs in the sector will go if changes are not made.
Blundstone will shut its doors within months after 137 years
of operation and move to Thailand and India to reduce high manufacturing costs.
Up to 300 workers in Tasmania and 60 in New Zealand will lose their jobs.
The company says rising costs have forced the Australian icon offshore.
"Since 2003, we have not been able to pass the price increases - fuel increases, inflation, and labour - on to consumers," Blundstone manager Steve Gunn told News Limited.
"If we hadn't made this decision, the market would have determined Blundstone boots irrelevant in a relatively short period of time."
Mr Gunn said it was not worth asking governments for further assistance and said Blundstone would not be the last manufacturer in the sector to close onshore operations.
"I would make the point that we are not the first Australian manufacturer to make this call there are others that have been identifying the need to do it," he told ABC Radio.
"I don't believe that manufacturing in Australia is a sensible option."
Tony Woolgar, national secretary of the Textile, Clothing and Footwear Union, said the federal government's trade policies were ruining Australia's manufacturing industry.
"We've got a government hellbent on doing a free trade agreement with China, we're allowing a flood of imports into Australia from China in the TCF sector, and unless the government is prepared to change it's policy on trade, then I think you'll see this sort of thing continue to happen," Mr Woolgar told ABC Radio.
Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane said the government was disappointed, but said Australian companies found it difficult to compete with lower wages in Asian countries.
"The textile, clothing and footwear industry in Australia has been under big pressure since the mid-1980s and that pressure has come from right around the world, as other countries have moved and Australia's standard of living has continued to rise and ... wage rates rise, making this industry a little uncompetitive compared to that product coming out of Asia."
"We have committed almost A$1.5 billion ($1.7 billion) as a government towards supporting the textile, clothing and footwear industry in Australia and the company itself has been a recipient of many millions of dollars worth of assistance."
All workers are expected to be paid their full entitlements.
- AAP
