By Kerri-Anne Mesner
THE number of unemployed people in Sunshine continues to rise and is almost three times the national figure, according to Federal Government figures.
The Department of Employment and Workplace Relations’ figures show Sunshine’s unemployment rate was 11.7 per cent in the June quarter compared with 11.4 in the June 2006 quarter and 11.1 per cent in the December 2006 quarter. The current national unemployment rate is 4.3 per cent.
The figures were released days after staff at OneSteel’s British Tube Mills (BTM) Sunshine site were told 20 of them would lose their jobs by the end of November.
Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU) officials, employees and OneSteel representatives met at the St Albans Rd site on 8 October to discuss redundancy packages, entitlements, and other related matters.
Labor candidate for Maribyrnong Bill Shorten said Sunshine had been a proud manufacturing powerhouse for many years, but neglect of manufacturing policy at federal level had seen more and more local jobs go overseas.
“Sunshine’s dependence on manufacturing industry has exposed it to the flip side of the mining boom,” he said. “Competing imports and financial pressures squeeze local industries and put their workers out of a job.”
The AMWU’s Mick Bull said at the 8 October meeting that BTM Sunshine staff had said that they were unhappy with the situation.
“They (OneSteel) are asking for voluntary redundancy,” he said. “They are fairly confident they will get the numbers they are looking for.”
Mr Bull said OneSteel said it was confident it would get enough voluntary redundancies without having to resort to compulsory redundancies because of a number of workers who were close to retirement age. He said while OneSteel told workers and the union representatives said the redundancies were not the result of merging with Smorgon Steel, the union had its doubts.
“We think it is too much of a coincidence,” Mr Bull said.
He referred to the closing of the Burkharts factory in Geelong where 70 people lost their jobs and a similar situation in Newcastle.
OneSteel spokesman Mark Gell said the downsizing exercise was not the result of the merger between OneSteel and Smorgon Steel.
“Smorgon didn’t have one of these businesses in the first place,” he said. Mr Gell said this business reported to the distribution segment of OneSteel, while the businesses that were impacted by the merger were from the manufacturing segment.
