400 jobs to go at Ion plant

Date: 29 March 2005

The Australian Workers' Union (AWU) renewed its criticism of the former management of the failed Ion Ltd group today after administrators announced 400 job losses from the closure of its Wingfield auto parts plant in Adelaide.

Ion Administrators McGrath Nicol said that efforts to sell the engine parts plant as a going concern had failed and the operation would close on July 31. Around 60 jobs will be lost immediately, with another 340 people to lose their positions over the next few months.

AWU National Secretary Bill Shorten said that all former Ion employees would be paid their outstanding entitlements in full, in accordance with agreements between the union and the Administrators reached after the group went into voluntary administration last December.

"We are extremely disappointed by the loss of so many good manufacturing jobs and we are working in cooperation with the administrators to do everything we can to save all the other jobs in the Ion group," Mr Shorten said.

"The job losses announced today are ultimately a result of the company's failure last year - the former directors and managers should take note of today's events. The workers at Wingfield have been like lions led by donkeys," Mr Shorten said.

AWU South Australian Branch Secretary Wayne Hanson blamed the job losses on a "monumental management muck-up," adding that recent legal action against Ion by the South Australian Environment Protection Authority (EPA) had made the situation even worse.

"Our thoughts go out to the workers who are losing their jobs and the families who are losing their livelihoods. If anyone else was responsible for such a muck-up, they would be run out of town," Mr Hanson said. He congratulated the workers at Wingfield for their efforts to increase productivity at the plant and said that free outplacement and counselling services would be available to all workers.

The Ion Automotive Group employs around 300 other workers in South Australia at its Kilkenny plant and at the former Castalloy plant in North Plympton. Another 700 auto workers are employed at Ion's transmissions plant at Albury in New South Wales.

Mr Shorten and Mr Hanson will meet workers at Ion's continuing North Plympton plant in Adelaide tomorrow (Wednesday March 30).

For further information

Contact:	Jeremy Vermeesch
Union:	The Australian Workers' Union
Phone:	03 8327 0888
Contact Mobile:	0431 942 977
Fax:	03 8327 0899
Email:	jeremy.vermeesch@awu.net.au
WWW:	http://www.awu.net.au

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