Graham Mathews, Melbourne
"Kodak is shutting its Coburg plant while crying poor, but its share price has jumped nearly 20%", David Glanz, the Socialist Alliance candidate for the seat of Wills, said in a media release on September 17. The Kodak site is in the Wills electorate.
"This decision will wreck the lives of more than 600 workers and their families", Glanz added. "Meanwhile Kodak's shares, which began the year at US$25.67, closed on Wednesday at US$30.
"Kodak says its traditional business is being eroded by digital photography. But the functions carried out at Coburg will not come to an end — they will merely be transferred to other Kodak plants in Europe, North America and Asia."
Glanz noted that Kodak had been "propped up by public money for more than a decade. Millions of public dollars have been given to the company to keep the Coburg plant open, and now the workers and the community are being kicked in the teeth.
"Either Kodak should hand back the public subsidies, or spend the equivalent amount on retooling the plant to make digital cameras and peripherals.
"Wills has lost so many industrial jobs already with the closure of factories like Chef and Yakka. Kodak was easily the largest remaining manufacturing site in the electorate. The rot has to stop."
Glanz said that the unions covering Kodak workers "should not meekly negotiate redundancy payments. Instead, they should be organising a fightback for jobs and prepare to occupy the plant to keep it open. Workers all around the country would cheer a fight against the job wreckers."
From Green Left Weekly, September 22, 2004.
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