Jobs axed
Greg Lindsay has lost his job as a Murray Goulburn truck driver.
THE drastic loss of suppliers has been blamed for the savage job cuts at Leongatha’s Murray Goulburn factory.
South Gippsland Shire mayor Cr Warren Raabe said the job losses are devastating for the district.
He’s very worried about the ripple effect through the community.
“Farmers are all suffering from the high Australian dollar. It’s horrible,” he said.
The cuts, announced last Thursday, will strip 40 jobs from across the Leongatha factory operations.
The canteen is being shut down, and the UHT plant, product cartage and laboratory staff are all affected.
An additional 19 transport roles will be lost around Gippsland.
In Victoria, 301 MG jobs have been slashed and more cuts have not been ruled out.
Wooreen dairy farmer Leo Argento said he’s disappointed past management and board members hadn’t been “on the ball” and acted earlier so the result wasn’t so drastic.
He said the co-operative was “under heaps of pressure” to perform and hold its milk supply. Other dairy manufacturers have expanded and in Mr Argento’s view, have done so on the back of Murray Goulburn which has not been operating as efficiently as possible.
He said in the last 10 years, Murray Goulburn has lost 25 per cent of its milk supply.
“It has to rationalise – it has to come from somewhere,” Mr Argento said.
Farmer Gordon Vagg of Leongatha South was blunt.
“I don’t want people to lose their jobs, but Murray Goulburn is the only dairy co-operative left in Australia and, if we don’t have one, we might as well stop milking cows,” he said.
“We have to make sure Murray Goulburn survives because of the jobs it provides for country towns. Once it gets going again Murray Goulburn will create jobs. We have to think of that.”
One of those to be given his marching orders is Greg Lindsay of Leongatha. His job has gone thanks to the new outsourcing of MG’s product cartage business. He’s driven for the company for 26 years, the first 10 as a tanker driver and is used to a 12 hour shift on a 1am start.
He said there had been rumours around the factory for the past month, but being handed his redundancy letter still came as a shock. He’s 62 and hopes to find some part time work when he leaves MG at the end of June.
Mr Lindsay said MG has been a good company to work for, but it’s the young employees he’s worried about; the ones who have just set up house or just married and those with specialised skills.
Canteen manager Elaine Carlson and her four co-workers will lose their jobs. She said the profits of suppliers to the canteen would be impacted. The canteen opened more than 20 years ago as a service to workers.
“We are saddened by it all. I was here the day it opened and I will be here the day it closes,” she said.
“We have met a lot of wonderful people over the years and it’s going to be a hard day. I love my job and I certainly was not ready for no, work but life goes on.
“I have no animosity against the company because they have to do what they do and I have always been extremely happy with the way the company has been run.”
Lillian Watsford works in the butter room and is unsure whether her position is safe.
“We may be okay but we don’t know that anything is definite,” the MG employee of 18 years said.
Another worker who wished to remain anonymous believed the company could have handled the redundancies better, calling for volunteers.
“That’s why workers got so upset about it. It just kills morale.”
The worker said nine of the 19 laboratory jobs would go and some workers had been with MG for at least 30 years.
Announcing the cuts, MG managing director Gary Helou said they resulted from a detailed review of the company’s processing sites and head office requirements.
The company plans to cut $100 million from its operating costs this year and deliver higher farm gate prices.
“The change program embarked on by Murray Goulburn is even more critical given the recent significant decline in world market prices due to higher global milk supply,” Mr Helou said.
“This initiative will help reduce the impact of falling world prices and a high Australian dollar on our supplier/shareholders.”
Mr Helou said the decision to cut jobs was a tough one.
“These are difficult but necessary decisions to ensure that Murray Goulburn can remain competitive. It is in the interests of our suppliers, shareholders, employees, communities and customers that MG remains a strong business into the future,” he said.
“We will continue to invest in programs and initiatives to significantly lower our operating costs, improve manufacturing efficiencies and strengthen our dairy foods portfolio.”
A company spokesman said the job losses had nothing to do with the Federal Government’s carbon tax.
The National Union of Workers has called on MG to ensure that redeployment and voluntary redundancies are a first priority. NUW Victorian Branch secretary Tim Kennedy said these latest job cuts would come as a shock to the workers and their families.
“Unfortunately these latest job losses come on top of a long list in Victorian industries and mean these workers have gone from secure full-time jobs to joining the queue of people now facing insecure causal work,” Mr Kennedy said.
Mr Kennedy said the NUW questioned Murray Goulburn’s claim that the job losses would deliver a more streamlined product flow and higher efficiencies across the region.
“It defies logic that shedding 170 workers will bring higher efficiencies. Workers today deserve to feel ripped off that a company which owes its highly profitable status to its dedicated workforce should take this action,” he said.
Leongatha Chamber of Commerce president Darryl McGannon believes that the job losses could “dint confidence” in the local economy.
“With those sorts of numbers it may have an impact. You certainly never like to hear of people losing jobs, particularly locally,” he said.
But he hastened to add that if the company was taking necessary steps to ensure its survival, then it was better that changes be made than it be at risk.
“Imagine if they shut the factory down. The ramifications of that would be a whole lot worse. You’d hope the management is making the right decisions for the long term viability of the business,” he said.
United Dairyfarmers of Victoria (UDV) president Kerry Callow described the job cuts as “a bitter pill”.
“This is yet another blow to Victoria’s food manufacturing sector, which is struggling in the face of cheap imports and competition from supermarkets’ house-branding strategy.”
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