LAWRENCE GULLERY LIN FERGUSON
Workers are ready to tear Norsewear's management "limb from limb" after the company promised but failed to front up to a meeting at its Norsewood site yesterday afternoon.
The well-known Norsewear brand has been sold to Auckland company Atlantic Apparel, headed by director Ben Nathan, National Distribution Union's
Manawatu-Wanganui region organiser Dion Martin said yesterday: " ... which means he (Nathan) can do what he likes with it.
"Once all the New Zealand-made product runs out here then, because he owns the brand, he can get it all made in China and still call it Norsewear which is terrible for a brand that's part of the Kiwi heritage."
Mr Martin waited with workers at the Norsewood clothing factory and shop yesterday, just south of Dannevirke, for the company's acting chief executive Myles Scholey to tell workers of their future.
"We were told that Mr Scholey and the managing director would be coming but no one fronted up. Workers have been waiting all week and were promised there would be a meeting.
"I think they got scared because they heard television would here. I've told them (Norsewear management), these guys are ready to tear you from limb from limb. They have heard the word redundancy and just want to know when and how much," he said.
The sale of the brand has been nothing short of a fiasco for its workers, he said.
The board was looking for a buyer for the Wanganui Norsewear factory which employs 22 workers and has been in operation since 1998, he said.
Mr Martin said it was unlikely anyone from the company would speak to workers until early next week.
In the meantime, workers were left wondering about the future while others were considering bringing in lawyers.
Mr Martin said there were five people at the Norsewood site each with 28 years service to the company. There were five married couples, one had a young family: "They feel ignored and gutted. There are some very angry people here in Norsewood."
