Godfrey Hirst to keep Dannevirke plant open

LAWRENCE GULLERY
Union organisers are working to ensure Dannevirke's Feltex plant workers retain their wage and work conditions following news Australian carpet maker Godfrey Hirst would take over the company.
It is anticipated Feltex's assets will be handed over to Godfrey Hirst next month and it would also take over Feltex's employee entitlements as well.
National Distribution Union's Palmerston North organiser, Dion Martin, said it was good news for the 150 staff in Dannevirke that the plant would stay open.
"But the issue we have to battle for now is to retain the workers' wages and work conditions," Mr Martin said.
He said the workers' collective contract would expire in March next year and the union would soon be in negotiations with Godfrey Hirst.
"The workers had nothing to do with the demise of Feltex, it was at a board level where things went wrong," Mr Martin said.
"We can't see any justification in losing jobs," he said.
Mr Martin said he had been in contact with workers by phone and would be visiting the Dannevirke plant today.
National Distribution Union organiser Kaye Hearfield said the union was "extremely" pleased Godfrey Hirst's third attempt to buy Feltex's assets succeeded.
Mrs Hearfield said the decision will give the Dannevirke plant some stability and job security but acknowledged the redundancies faced by other plants at Marton and Christchurch.
"No time is a good time to lose jobs," she said.
"I don't think it is a sacrifice but we knew there would have to be some form of restructuring." Tararua Mayor Maureen Reynolds said news the plant would remain open was good for the whole central region.
"I am sure the folk who work at the plant are able to look ahead and plan their future now.
"I have spoken to the manager and he told me of the news that the plant will work on, they were very positive when I was there," she said.
Godfrey Hirst's New Zealand general manager Tania Pauling said Hirst would work on knitting the two companies' cultures together and they hoped to have a good handle of the situation by Christmas.
"It's always difficult combining two businesses. We have quite different cultures," she told National Radio. "We have a different way of doing business."
Godfrey Hirst owns a wool carpet site in Auckland, a wool scouring plant near Clive and a spinning plant in Christchurch.
Feltex shareholders were likely to get nothing while the ANZ Bank will get all its $135-140 million of debt returned after Godfrey Hirst bought the carpet maker from the receivers yesterday. Most of Feltex's 820 workers will retain their jobs but the new owner plans to make 120 redundant.