The freezing works was built in 1896 and survived for nearly a century until Weddel closed down the plant in 1994. File picture
The Weddel closure in late 1994 meant the end of a 98 year era for the Gisborne Refrigerating Company (GRC). For the 1200-strong workforce it meant the sudden and dramatic end of their working lives at the plant.
It came as a crushing blow for many of them as they lost not just the employment, but the close friendships forged over many years.
Some were able to pick up meat processing jobs at other freezing works, many embarked on completely new careers but for some there was no “tomorrow” in terms of work, and they faded away.
For the first time since that fateful day in 1994, three Gisborne men have organised the first reunion of the plant’s workers.
Doug Symes and Wayne Tautau were employed at GRC for 17 years, and Robbie Blair was there for 12 years.
They felt the time was right to get together as many of the former workers as possible for the reunion — while they still can.
They are expecting more than 150 former workers, and/or their families to gather from 2pm on Saturday at the Cosmopolitan Club.
“We’ve got a lot of the old hands coming, guys who were on the killing and processing chains, meat inspectors, and some from the plant’s management, so it’s going to be great to catch up with them,” Mr Symes said.
The reunion begins with a welcome and then two minutes of silence for those former workers at GRC who have passed way.
The intention is to make the reunion an annual event.
GRC was a big part of the lives of the many who worked there.
“We reckon the memories we all share should be rekindled on an annual basis if possible, so we can all keep in touch with each other.”
The three have differing memories of their time at GRC, but they all vividly remember the comradeship and good times they had with their colleagues.
Doug Symes went hunting and skinning possums, deer and goats when he left school, so he was used to handling knives, when he started work at GRC.
“We were working with knives like razor blades in our hands every day on the chains, so you had to be careful.
“The guys who were there for a few years got to be really skilful.”
He went shearing after the closure and then back into animal pest control for the Department of Conservation and the Gisborne District Council.
The work ethic at the plant was high, he said.
“You had to be at work every day, otherwise you would let the team down.
“A man off work meant the killing and processing chains stopped.”
Wayne Tautau started at GRC as a 19-year-old.
“I remember the times I spent with guys who became really good mates,” he said.
“Everyone had their crew of guys who you sat with at smoko time, or in the pub on pay night, and working there paid well.
“All three of us bought our first houses as a result of working at the freezing works.”
Mr Tautau started a successful carpet cleaning business after the Weddel closure, and he’s still doing that 30 years on.
Robbie Blair worked at Eastland Port for 20 years after the closure, and now farms in Darwin Road.
He was an active sportsman, particularly in rugby, and he found the work at GRC good training for his sport.
“It was tough work because you had to keep up when you were working on the chains, so it was great for fitness and it hardened me mentally.
“There were a lot of guys involved in sports working there, and our conversations on a Monday after a weekend’s rugby for example were classic.
“There was so much good-natured banter around that . . . some of it not so good-natured,” he said with a chuckle.
Handling knives all the time meant a lot of injuries.
“Everyone got cut sooner or later,” Mr Tautau said.
“The first aid room was pretty busy sometimes, and the plant nurse was busy on Monday mornings with the weekend sports injuries.”
GRC employed around 1200, mainly men, at the peak of each season, which ran from October 1 to May-June the next year.
At peak the plant could process around 10,000 lambs and muttons a day, and 500 to 600 cattle.
One year the plant hit the million head mark processed in the season, the men remembered with obvious pride.
They recalled the Christmas parties the plant held, which invariably ended up featuring a number of fights between workers.
“The daily niggles that came up at work during the season tended to blow up into scraps at the Christmas party,” they said.
“In response, works management eventually decided to stop holding the parties.”
The diversity of the workforce at GRC was something they remembered.
“There were all types and extremes of people there, some religious, some who weren’t at all that way inclined, then there were others who just wouldn’t talk to anyone, who just kept to themselves,” Mr Symes said.
“It was a big workforce, with every personality in the book, so it was a very interesting place to work.”
They were there when Halal slaughtermen arrived on site.
“That was a big change in the work environment.
“They’d say a prayer for every sheep they killed and it slowed things down.”
Doug, Wayne and Robbie have varying views on how they felt to be part of the meat processing industry back in the day.
For Wayne it was “just a job”, and for Doug too — ”I just went there for the money, which was better than anywhere else then, and we felt like you really earned it, because it was hard work.”
Robbie said it always felt special to be part of it.
“I was always proud of the job we did at GRC and of my workmates.
“After all we were involved in Gisborne’s biggest industry, and that’s significant in itself.
“We put out a good quality meat product, with no machines involved.
“It was all done by hand.”
Speaking of hands, the three have tried to get as many of the old hands together as possible for the reunion.
“Unfortunately there have been some who cannot make it. They’re just not up to it.
“Some have told us told us they’ll come if they can, if their health is up to it on the day,” Mr Symes said.
“We do have a guy in an Auckland hospice who’s coming down for it, which we are rapt about.
“We didn’t think he’d get here, but he is!”
The speakers on Saturday include Nic Nikora, head foreman at the mutton slaughterhouse back in the day, Wayne Muir a slaughterman and mutton 2IC for many years, and Tom Stevens who was the union delegate.
A special feature of the reunion will be the screening of two video movies taken inside the plant in the 1990-92 period.
“It will be a great chance to see our workmates back then as they were.”
The reunion will also feature a lot of cuttings from the Gisborne Herald, particularly around the Weddel closure.
Former long-serving Gisborne Herald rural journalist Barbara Scott has provided the organisers with a written summary of the Herald’s coverage.
She describes hearing about it on the radio news on the day the closure news broke, after a tip some bad news was coming for Gisborne.
“I could hardly believe it,” Barbara said in her summary.
“It was an enormous blow to the employees, stock suppliers, service providers, stock agents and the whole community.”
She spent that night on the phone getting comment for the paper.
“Meat Workers Union Gisborne secretary Rangi Paenga said the way the workers got the news, most of them from the television news that night, was a ‘bloody disgrace’.
“He told me he was heartsick for the hundreds now without jobs, and for their families.”
Also in her summary Barbara pointed to the support centre run by George and Miria Walker after the closure.
“They helped channel former Weddel employees into retraining courses, helped them set up new businesses and get alternative employment.
“Without their help and encouragement many would not have taken new steps.”
Barbara said, “It is now fitting that a reunion is being planned many years after that fateful evening of August 19 1994, when the 6pm news announced the demise of Gisborne’s biggest employer.”
This writer worked for Radio New Zealand at the time. The afternoon of the announcement I remember walking home over the Gladstone Road Bridge, looking across at the works and wondering how Gisborne would survive so many job losses.
To the great credit of all those who got the bad news that day. it has survived.
I can still hear the works’ hooter sounding at five o’clock, signalling the end of the working day.
Only 1% of Gisborne participants reported fever or cough by June 8.