announced this afternoon confirm that the wood industry is in crisis,
and that the value-added strategy is now at serious risk.
The
job losses of 80 includes 40 permanent production workers and 40
other temporary staff, management and contractors, at WPI
International’s Tangiwai Mill, near Ohakune.
It
follows Tuesday’s announcement of the mothballing of Prime Sawmill
in Gisborne, and 26 job losses at Carter Holt Harvey Woodproducts
Kawerau Sawmill.
“Today’s
news confirms our view that the wood processing industry is now at
crisis point,” said Robert Reid, General Secretary of the National
Distribution Union, which represents workers at Tangiwai.
“The
price of raw logs is going up and up, but the price at which New
Zealand can sell processed timber is going down. In effect, the
closer a wood company is to a raw log, the more money they will make
in exporting.”
“The
(high) dollar is a major part, but there is a real structural
problem in the industry. When value-added ends up being
completely uneconomic, there is something wrong here.”
For
the year ended December 2009, the value of exports of forestry
products was 8.1% of New Zealand’s total merchandise exports – $3,250
million
The
major devaluation of competitor countries currencies is exposed here
as the major imperialists nations export unemployment to our shores
and this is the opening salvo of a world trade war. On the basis of
capitalism this means the potential destruction of the New Zealand
wood process industry. Capitalism is destroying industry, workers
lives and a future.
The
only way of guaranteeing a future for the industry is through
nationalisation of the country’s sawmills as part of a planned
economy here in New Zealand and internationally.