Geelong
Friday, 5 December, 2014
Connecting people and communities
Phone: 5249 6700 Trades and Classifieds: 1300 666 808
Our global Christmas ASHLEY Coote and Teresa Seg are pictured playing inside a giant Christmas snow globe at central GeelongÃĒ€™s T&G building. Central Geelong Marketing has installed the globe for shoppers to take unique photos of themselves celebrating Christmas and the festive season. 131930 Picture: REG RYAN
MP ON JOB FOR UNION PROTEST P7
REPÃĒ€™S BARD HITS HIGH SPEED P24
350 told jobs gone days before Christmas
Yule be out of work
By NOEL MURPHY
INDY GUIDE TO SENIORS LIFE P32-38
ALCOAÃĒ€™S last 350 Geelong workers will face a bleak, uncertain Christmas when they farewell the aluminium plant after 51 years of operation in a fortnight. AlcoaÃĒ€™s rolled products division will close on 19 December. Production at AlcoaÃĒ€™s Point Hen-
ry smelter ended in August with the departure of 500 workers. The sackings will make for a unhappy Christmas despite sizeable separation packages for workers, many of whom have been long-term employees. But the redundancy payouts - on average around three weeks pay for every year of service will be cold comfort for workers
and their families as they face a difficult search for new jobs. ÃĒ€œItÃĒ€™s going to be hard for the older guys, for all of them, to get new jobs in the Geelong area,ÃĒ€? Australian Workers Union organiser Gavin Penn told the Independent. ÃĒ€œThe payouts will be be eaten up fairly quickly. IÃĒ€™m already getting calls from people asking
about fly-in/fly-out jobs. There are a few going round but the big thing is when youÃĒ€™re gone from the family for three weeks then home for a week and off again it can be a bit tough. ÃĒ€œBut people need to work. I know people from the smelter who have had to move to Queensland to work up there. ÃĒ€œItÃĒ€™s the end of era but itÃĒ€™s
hard losing your job a week prior to Christmas.ÃĒ€? Alcoa reviewed its Point Henry operations in 2012, finding no prospect of becoming financially viable. Last February it announced the closure of the smelter and rolling mill as well as a rolling mill in Yennora, New South Wales. Continued page 3
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