By NOEL MURPHY
ALCOA’S last 250 Geelong workers will face a bleak, uncertain Christmas when they farewell the aluminium plant after 51 years of operation in a fortnight.
Alcoa’s rolled products division will close on 19 December. Production at Alcoa’s Point Henry 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.
“It’s going to be hard for the older guys, for all of them, to get new jobs in the Geelong area,” Australian Workers Union organiser Gavin Penn told the Independent.
“The payouts will be be eaten up fairly quickly. I’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 you’re gone from the family for three weeks then home for a week and off again it can be a bit tough.
“But people need to work. I know people from the smelter who have had to move to Queensland to work up there.
“It’s the end of era but it’s hard losing your job a week prior to Christmas.”
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.
Another 80-plus jobs remain under a cloud at Alcoa’s Anglesea power station, where enterprise agreement talks were yesterday under way while the coal-powered plant and accompanying power station are on the market for a buyer.
Alcoa has said it will close the plant if it cannot find a buyer but has been quiet on any negotiations with potential purchasers in the face of activists’ aggressive campaign to close the facility.
Mr Penn suggested the plant could represent “a nice little profitable power station”.
Alcoa said that when employees were informed of the Point Henry closure, in February, it implemented a multi-million dollar program to equip its employees with the skills and support they needed to secure sustainable alternative employment in the region.
“This 10-month program included career transition assistance, one-on-one career counselling, resume development, directly sponsored short-term courses and financial support for employees to undertake their own accredited training,” the company said in a statement.
