Workers gather in the Clyde tavern after the meeting on the closure of the Winstone Pulp mills. Photo: RNZ / Alexa Cook
- Winstone Pulp International is closing down its two mills near Ohakune due to unsustainable power prices
- 230 people are losing their jobs
- Resources minister Shane Jones has threatened to end the Electricity Authority if it did not work harder to regulate power prices, but the government is yet to intervene on the issue
- The mill is the main employer in the central North Island region, with most of its workers living in Raetihi, Ohakune and Waiouru
- A petition was launched last week to save the mill, fearing nearby communities would turn into ghost towns
More than 200 mill workers are now desperately searching for work after Winstone Pulp International confirmed it will shut down in less than a month.
Public consultation over the proposed closure ended last week, but workers held out hope that the government would intervene after ministers and mill management met several times to discuss unsustainable wholesale power pricing.
When Monday's meeting was moved to Tuesday, many saw it as a good sign that perhaps the mill would survive. But on Tuesday afternoon the mill confirmed it was closing, which worker Glen Richfield said came as a shock to everyone in the room.
Winstone Pulp International to close central North Island mills leaving 230 out of work
"Just stunned silence, no one had any questions, no one had anything to say. Once we heard the news, we were just waiting for it to be over," he said.
Straight after the meeting, workers and their families gathered at Ohakune's Clyde Tavern to debrief over a pint or two.
"At the end of the day we're all one big family, so we come together and share the sorrows together really," said mill worker Jett Tumataroa.
He is among many fearing for his community's future.
"Our local towns... it's probably going to wreck them, especially as a lot of us young ones we're probably going to disappear off to Aussie or something if we can, so yeah, a big loss to the community.
"I've recently just bought my house beginning of June, haven't had it that long... got to find a job pretty fast or my redundancy is going on my mortgage. That's going to be tough," he said.
His colleague Erin Gibson told RNZ the news was still sinking in.
"It's heartbreaking. It's part of our identity, honestly I've cried that many tears I can't remember what day of the week it is.
"In shift work you lean on each other as well and I'm going to miss that," she said.
Winstone Pulp International set up its operation between Ohakune and Waiouru 45 years ago, and Geoff Campbell has been there for most of that time.
"I've worked at the mill since 1981. I started as a pulp tester, then an operator for seven or eight years, then an apprenticeship.. and a vibration analysis... that's where i've finished," said Campbell.
It was the work culture that had kept him there for four decades.
"The family has been good to me, we're paid well.. four day weeks and three day weekends. All those things were really good," he said.
Mill families and supporters wait outside the meeting on Tuesday afternoon Photo: RNZ / Alexa Cook
While Campbell was hoping for an early retirement, other like Glen were worried about a lack of job opportunities.
"We've got four kids and a mortgage so we can't sustain it here," he said.
Winstone said since announcing the operational pause last month it had worked hard to consider all available options to keep operations going in some form, including seeking long-term price certainty for electricity.
"The nature of our operations means we need competitive pricing to be sustained over a long period, we cannot work around short-term price dips in the market.
"Even though current spot pricing has fallen significantly from the August highs, current electricity Futures pricing indicates that nothing is going to materially change in the medium-term regarding wholesale market electricity pricing," said a spokesperson.