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The FIRST Union is holding a meetings on a Rotorua marae this afternoon with workers from the failed Tachikawa Forest Products sawmill to update them on efforts to salvage their jobs.
Rawiri Daniels, the union’s wood sector secretary, says most of the mill’s 120 workers are Maori, and the closure is a huge blow.
He says the union is working with iwi to see if jobs can be saved.
FIRST national secretary Robert Reid says the whole industry has been put under pressure by the high New Zealand dollar, the high price of logs and the lack of a government procurement strategy around either the Canterbury rebuild or the government’s house building programme.
Tachikawa had had enough forward orders to return to profit, but ran out of working capital to buy logs.
Receivers Korda Mentha are looking for a buyer for the sawmill.
Copyright © 2013, UMA Broadcasting Ltd
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