FIRST Union has welcomed the initiative of the three Central North Island regional mayors in adding their weight to the FIRST and E tū unions’ call to keep two WPI-operated mills (Tangiwai sawmill and Karioi pulp mill in the Ruapehu region) open and save the 230 jobs under threat during the current two-week consultation on the mills’ future.

Under the terms of the FIRST Union and E tū members’ Collective Agreement with WPI, the company presented a proposal to close the mill to workers and unions on Tuesday this week. The Agreement provided for a consultation period for unions and workers to make the case for the mills to remain open.

"It’s great that a strong union Collective Agreement has allowed the opportunity for mayors, iwi, and community to come up with alternate proposals to keep the mills open," said Dennis Maga, FIRST Union General Secretary.

"We want to thank Minister Shane Jones for being a strong advocate inside the Government for keeping these mills and other manufacturing facilities open. We appreciate he will have a hard job convincing his free market Cabinet colleagues of the need for government intervention."

"Rampant profiteering since the part-privatisation of our energy companies in 2012 has become a major threat to our manufacturing sector, and this proposal for closure has highlighted the need for a systemic solution that can reduce wholesale energy costs while maintaining our commitment to renewable energy."

"We don’t believe that further exploration for natural gas can be singled out as the reason for high power prices, as some have suggested - making our majority state-owned energy companies work for New Zealanders rather than shareholders is the key."

"It’s somewhat ironic that the Karioi Pulp Mill was opened by National Party Prime Minister Robert Muldoon in 1979 to provide much-needed jobs in the area based on the natural resources of the growing forestry industry and cheap electricity from the Tongariro hydro power scheme."

"We hope Prime Minister Luxon will have a sense of history and provide the required intervention to keep the mills running and 230 people in work, or this could be the Government that kills manufacturing in New Zealand once and for all."

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