LOG trucks were turned away from the Boral mill yesterday as the community and union members set up a blockade in a bid to force the company to reconsider its decision to shut down the mill.
It was the start of a round-the-clock vigil in support of the 23 workers who lost their jobs without warning.
The pressure is now on to stop Boral stripping the log quota from the mill and transporting it elsewhere for milling and force the company to sell or lease the facility as a viable sawmill.
All access to all vehicles - in or out - will be blocked and the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union has set up on-site facilities to maintain the blockade 24 hours a day.
Walcha mayor Bill Heazlett and Member for Northern Tablelands Richard Torbay want Boral to do the right thing and on sell or lease the mill along with the timber from the 20 year Wood Supply Agreement.
“The decision to shut the mill down was in Boral’s interests and that’s not our interests,” Mr Heazlett told the 40 people gathered at the blockade on Thursday morning.
“We want this mill opened. We have been a timber community for a long time and we won’t give this up.
“Boral will not be taking any of the timber on site at Walcha away for processing elsewhere or stripping other assets from the site.
“There are huge implications for regional towns across this state if Boral gets away with its Walcha closure. Well, they won’t be getting away with it on my watch - this community is going to fight to have the mill reopened. The fact that there are locals prepared to sleep out in the middle of winter should say something about our determination.”
Mr Torbay said at the rally that on one hand Boral claims the mill is “unviable” but on the other wants to keep the timber.
“They (Boral) can’t have it both ways,” Mr Tobay said. “We’ve been talking with Primary Industries Minister Ian McDonald to look at options.
“We want this mill re-opened and if Boral don’t want to do it then let someone else do it.”
Mr Torbay said Boral Timber received more than $22.5 million of public funding under the Forest Industry Structural Adjustment Program to invest in mills in smaller communities and provide security.
Mr Heazlett said there would be another meeting between stakeholders and Boral in two week’s time and encouraged members of the community to continue to show their support and spend some time at the blockade and sign a petition that will be taken to the meeting.
CFMEU representative Arturo ‘Bluey’ Menon said everyone was welcome at the blockade and could join them for a cuppa.
There were also questions from the crowd about why the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) doesn’t investigate situations like this where large companies move in and buy out the competition and then close down the sites.
Although the sawmill closed officially on Tuesday, work ceased at the mill last Thursday.
Meanwhile, CFMEU members at Boral’s Herons Creek facility voted unanimously to refuse to process timber that would otherwise have had processed at Walcha.
The motion passed at the stop work meeting stated that members want Boral to reverse its decision to close the Walcha Sawmill and commit to processing the allocation of logs attached to the sawmill as per the wood supply agreement emanating out of the NSW Governments Forest policy and subsequent Regional Forest Agreement.
“This wood supply agreement is a public resource and it was intended to give job security for workers in regional communities not job losses due to a corporate restructure.”
At Boral sites in Narooma, Batemans Bay and Nowra similar motions were passed.
In a statement Boral Timber’s executive general manager Bryan Tisher said:
“We have had extensive dialogue with Forests NSW regarding wood supply costs and we have discussed alternatives for the Walcha site but we have been unable to find an immediate solution. We are however, continuing to consider other options for the Walcha site and will discuss these options with the Government.
“Our primary concern has always been for the welfare of our employees.”
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