Gilbert Sydney was made redundant from the Kinleith mill, then found a job at Tokoroa Plywood Plant – but he had only been there a month when the plant's closure was confirmed. Photo / RNZ, Evie Richardson
Gilbert Sydney was made redundant from the Kinleith mill, then found a job at Tokoroa Plywood Plant – but he had only been there a month when the plant's closure was confirmed. Photo / RNZ, Evie Richardson
With jobs dwindling, Tokoroa locals may be forced to leave to find work – but many remained determined to stay in their hometown.
The timber industry, which once kept Tokoroa thriving, has been the latest victim of rising costs, following the closure of the town’s paper mill in June.
Nearly 250 jobs have been lost in Tokoroa in recent months with the closure of the town's paper mill and plywood plant. Photo / RNZ, Evie Richardson
Gilbert Sydney was made redundant from the Kinleith mill, but was lucky enough to find work next door at the plywood plant.
He had only been there four weeks before Tuesday’s announcement.
“Double-banger, it’s a double-banger but I’ve always felt as you just gotta move on with life, you can’t be in the dumps for too long, especially when you’ve got family,” Sydney said.
Despite the two job losses, he was keeping his head up. As a father of five, Sydney was keen to find work close to home, but with so few jobs available it may not be as easy this time around.
“What am I gonna do now? How am I gonna afford because I’ve just got a mortgage, how am I gonna pay for all of this? Hence why I had to find a job so fast.”
Tokoroa town centre. Photo / RNZ, Evie Richardson
Although he was determined to stay in Tokoroa, Sydney worried whether his kids would have a future in the struggling town.
“I think if these two places like fully shut, nah... I don’t think there’s a future here for them,” he said.
The plywood plant used to employ thousands, locals said.
Another person who worked there for 10 years said its future had been uncertain for some time.
“We’ve had three restructures in a year and a half, and then they say they’re keeping the best behind to try to keep the company going, just to find out it’s kind of a kick in the face when it’s cheaper to export everything,” he said.
The man did not think it was going to be possible to find work in Tokoroa after it shuts its doors in November.
“There’s literally no jobs around, not locally, even in the next towns, which is like 10, 15, 30 minutes away, there’s nothing there… we literally have to travel like an hour and a half to even find a job.”
As workers scrambled to find what’s next for them, former employees of the next-door paper mill had been doing that for some time.
Sam Pahewa was made redundant from the OJI Fibre Solutions paper mill last month.
After battling to find work in the town, he had taken a job in Taharoa – a two-hour commute each way.
He said it was one of the closest he could find.
“Younger ones with younger families are going to struggle being away from home for that long, I think even I would struggle for a bit, but it’s only a couple hours away if something bad happens, and you know I’m not going to be going to Australia, and be overseas doing their fly-in fly-out, which was one of the options I looked at,” Pahewa said.
He has a family in Tokoroa and came back on his days off, but he too was worried about how the town would cope with another closure.
“As each mill’s closing, that means there’s less and less opportunities for people when another mill closes, you know it’s gonna be hard for, especially for the younger ones now, to find any jobs that are out there.”
Union spokesman for Tokoroa Plywood Plant, Red Middlemiss from E tū. Photo / RNZ, Evie Richardson
The plywood plant’s union spokesman, Red Middlemiss, was in his usual spot outside Ronnie’s Bakery on Wednesday afternoon as locals came to him with questions and concerns.
Despite another blow to the town he had lived in all his life, his outlook was positive.
“There are people struggling but they’re relying on that camaraderie around Tokoroa, it’s hard to explain but it’s always been like that. Like I said, there was 3000-odd out there not too long ago… and we’ve been through it so many times and we bounce back… Tokoroa is not just about the timber anymore,” he said.
While Tokoroa would need to adopt a new industry to move the town forward, it was uncertain what that would be.
