Union to assist Blundstone workers

HOBART: The Textile Clothing and Footwear Union (TCFUA) will go cap in hand to both the Federal and State Governments in an attempt to secure additional funding for displaced workers at Tasmania's Blundstone factory.
The move follows the company's announcement last week that it intends moving its manufacturing to Thailand and India, putting 350 workers across its Australian and New Zealand operations out of work.
TCFUA national secretary Tony Woolgar said the union was doing everything it could to help the stricken workers, most of whom learnt of the decision when they returned from their Christmas break last Tuesday (January 16).
Woolgar, who spent all this week at the company's Hobart headquarters, said as well as targeting both levels of government for additional dollars, he also intended tapping Blundstone itself.
"The Federal Government has money for this sort of thing, I'm not sure about the State Government but we'll try them anyway. The company for its part has some obligations to its workers as well. I don't see why it shouldn't chip in."
Woolgar said the money would be used to help re-train staff, some of whom had been at the 137-year-old company - which churns out more than one million pairs of boots a year as well as a separate apparel line - for more than 20 years.
Staff have been told they have another five to eight months of work available to them and will be given notice "as the time draws near".
However, while the union appears confident of receiving some financial assistance for the stricken workers, it may face difficulty in convincing the government to put its hand in its pocket.
Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane was quoted as saying Blundstone had been given "many millions of dollars worth of assistance" under the government's $1.3 billion plan to support the textile, clothing and footwear industry through to 2015. Additional funds were though to have come from the government's strategic investment program designed to offset the impact of tariff cuts while the company was also believed to have been the beneficiary of a $96,000 grant from the Tasmanian government in 2005.
Blundstone chief executive Steve Gunn - who was unavailable at the time of press - blamed the overriding costs of labour for the decision.