Vol. 73/No. 14      April 13, 2009

The biggest clothing manufacturer in Australia, Pacific Brands, announced February 25 that it would close operations at seven plants in Australia by February 2010, laying off some 1,850 workers. The company will also close its plant in China, sacking 850 workers, and two plants in New Zealand, affecting 98 workers.

More than 40,000 people are employed across Australia in the textile, clothing, and footwear industries. About 3 percent of them will lose their jobs with the Pacific Brands closures alone. Thousands of others working to supply the company with fabric and other products are also likely to be affected.

At Hans Continental Smallgoods in Blacktown, western Sydney, 400 workers lost their jobs at the end of March when the meat processing plant closed. In August 2008 Don Smallgoods announced the closure of two factories in Melbourne and Western Australia, eliminating 640 jobs. Harvey Beef, the biggest beef slaughterhouse in Western Australia, announced March 11 that it would lay off more than 150 workers after they rejected a cut in wages.

In February the official national unemployment rate hit 5.2 percent following the biggest monthly drop in full-time jobs since 1991. In New South Wales the unemployment rate is now 5.8 percent and in Victoria it jumped from 4.8 percent to 5.6 percent, with an even sharper rise in Western Australia.

Big layoffs in the mining industry are currently taking place in Western Australia and in other states, as exports of coal and iron ore to China plummet. In January BHP Billiton announced it would cut 3,400 jobs across Australia. Rio Tinto also announced layoffs of 676 workers.

In Queensland, more than 1,000 jobs are to be phased out from BHP’s coal operations across the state. Anglo Coal has laid off some 650 workers from coal mines in Queensland and New South Wales because of slumping demand.

As the price of nickel dived, BHP announced it would close its Ravensthorpe nickel mine in Western Australia, slashing 1,450 jobs. Another 300 workers were laid off as production was reduced at the Mount Keith nickel mine near Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. At the Yabulu nickel plant near Townsville, Queensland, 400 jobs have been cut.

Four Pacific Brands plants in New South Wales will be shut down with 597 workers losing their jobs. At two of the company’s factories in Victoria 553 workers are losing their jobs along with 56 in its plant in Queensland.

Pacific Brands workers, a number of whom have worked for the company for years, were stunned by the announcement. Many were angry at the way they are being treated by the company, as media reports surfaced that Pacific Brands directors had increased their bonuses by more than A$8 million in 2008, including a raise that brings the chief executive officer’s annual pay to nearly A$1.9 million (A$1=US 69 cents). Union rallies to protest the plant closures and support the workers took place last month in Melbourne, and outside plants in Sydney, Unanderra, and Cessnock, in New South Wales. The main demand put forward by the Textile, Clothing and Footwear Union of Australia, which covers workers at these plants, is that the government ensure that workers’ accumulated entitlements and severance payments are protected.

However, many of the different union officials at these rallies called for the protection of “Aussie jobs,” opposing moving operations overseas. Transport workers’ unions announced they would blockade any Pacific Brands machinery being taken out of the country. Under the government’s textiles, clothing and footwear support scheme, which is aimed at protecting industry in Australia, Pacific Brands had already received more than A$15 million between 2006 and 2008.

Linda Harris is a sewing machine operator at the Pacific Brands plant in Sydney.
 
 
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