Closures Signal Exchange Rate Accelerated Crisis For Manufacturing Sector

“The Fisher and Paykel closures yesterday signal an exchange rate accelerated crisis for our manufacturing sector,” CTU president Ross Wilson said.

“The CTU has been expressing concern for years about the manufacturing sector.  We can’t blame Fisher and Paykel and we can’t blame the cheap labour countries.” 

“We need a sense of urgency in developing a manufacturing sector strategy, and an early response from Government on the ‘Manufacturing Vision’ report released late last year is now required.”

“There is something horribly wrong when bank profits are soaring while iconic manufacturers are shifting jobs offshore.”

“The CTU agrees on the need to ensure that we build high value into manufactured exports. But this requires an environment that is supportive of manufacturing as set out in the report released last year.”

“It is all very well to say that we should just focus on design and intellectual property for manufactured goods, but that sends a bleak message to the nearly 300,000 workers in the manufacturing sector,” Ross Wilson said.