Posted 3 hours 20 minutes ago
Map: Burnie 7320 The Tasmanian timber company Gunns has announced when it will close three northern woodchip mills.
It has told workers that the Hampshire mill is to shut in late December, followed by the Bell Bay mill in April and the Massey-Green mill at Burnie in mid-2011.
State secretary of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union Scott McLean says about 150 employees have been offered redundancies.
"There's nothing worse that you can do than take away a workers job so they're pretty sombre," he said. "But they understand the reality of what's happened to them and now we'll work to get the best possible outcome that we can for these people."
Mr McLean says the workforce has been guaranteed full entitlements but that is cold comfort.
"It's a very, very tough time in this industry for workers, none so more the people at Hampshire, Massey-Green and early next year the people at Tamar."
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