Holden 'to close Adelaide operations in 2017'

[nero_bolt]

 HOLDEN will close its Australian operations, including Elizabeth in 2017, the company has told its South Australian workforce.

The company has also told the Victorian Government that it will cease operations in 2017

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/business/companies/gm-to-name-mary-barra-ceo-as-holden-decision-nea...

 http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/holden-to-cease-operating-in-australia-from-2017/st...

[colic2bullsgirlore]

yes.. much better to have chinese cars and trains laden with asbestos dominating the market and towing chinese coal

to chinese ports to sail to China throughout Australia..............

"Australia is once again open for business" Tony Abbot September 7 2013

http://www.news.com.au/finance/chinese-car-sales-fall-in-australia/story-e6frfm1i-1226666647074

Other hurdles: more than 20,000 Great Wall Motors and Chery vehicles were recalled in August 2012 for having asbestos components in their engines.

Chinese cars tend to earn poor to scores in crash tests (between two and four stars when the modern industry norm is five stars).

But the companies hope to have a reversal of fortunes with a number of new generation Chinese vehicles made to international standards due in local showrooms in the next two years.

"There are new models in the pipeline," said Cotterill.

"We are confident in the ability of the Chinese to respond the Australian car market and boost sales."

good ole Aunty produces the goods again

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-26/chinese-imports-spark-railway-worker-asbestos-scare/5118242

Railway workers have been exposed to potentially hazardous asbestos after the deadly dust was found in locomotives brought in from China.

The breach of a 10-year ban on the import of products containing the carcinogenic fibre is not the first incident of its kind.

Unions are now demanding tougher policing of Chinese imports, describing the current asbestos-free certificates as a farce.

Last year freight carrier SCT imported 10 locomotives made by China Southern Rail (CSR) to tow iron ore bound for China to port.

[lakeland27]

you lot are protesting too much . which can only mean you are feeling the heat .  one term tone complained like a little sook when he took a pay cut in 2007, he had to take out a 700,000 mortgage on his home . mrs abbott doesn't make much in the ChildCare Sector

[i-need-a-martini]

Clearly you have read Grace Colliers opinion piece with your cereal this morning.

She is outraged that the EBA averages out at $50,000 per year per employee. She fails to point out that Holden not only employs factory line workers but also scientists, engineers, managers etc. Should these people also earn a base rate salary?

And at $50,000 per year, which is nearly $900 per week, is about the equivelent of a sales assistant wage with penalties and about the same salary as a senior stylist in a hairdressing salon. 

The other thing that Collier failed to mention is that the 2013 EBA  has a wage freeze for the next 3 years for all employees so if you think that the unions are pushing the wages up and up, then how to explain this sensible piece of enterprise bargaining negotiated at a time when Holden is experiencing difficulty? 

So what do you think is a fair salary for, say, a man supporting a family living and paying off a mortgage in Australia? $20,000 per year? Or is even this too much?

This isn't Asia (or even the US) where the price of living is chickenfeed.

[daydream**believer]

The Gov cant keep bailing these comapnies out.

The Gov hasnt failed Holden. Holden has failed because it has been run badly for too many years.

I had a friend who worked at Holden 8 years ago and he said there are too many "bosses" sitting in their offices drinking coffee all day and too many lazy workers.

He left because he know then that it wouldnt be long before it went belly up

[silverfaun]

$50K per year for every employee says it all. Unions shooting themselves in the foot & killing the goose. Serves then right, they reaped what they sowed,  I don't want to throw any more maney at these cosseted protected union members. Go out into the real world & do it for yourselves like everybody else has to.

[newstart2380]

---

@silverfaun wrote:

I'm fed up with subsidising union fat to the tune of $50k per year per person working in the car industry. GMH is closing all over the world, they will go to an Asian country to manufacture because there is no entrenched union thuggery bleeding the company dry.

The greedy unions killed the goose, destroyed their own jobs. Good riddance to the lot of the rent seeking car manufacturers, we can't afford to keep them going any longer. The economic horizon is bad & it's going to get worse.

The rusties will scream & bleat, blame everybody except themselves,but where was the outrage when Mitsubishi & Ford went??? This is Labor playing the spoiler, Parliament is virtually unworkable with this mob who just can't take it that they lost to a superior political machine.

---

TA asked that all parties pull together and try to help these people who will be out of a job in 3 years, yes 3 years and what job do you get 3 years notice, assistance in retraining, some a healthy redundancy package, long service leave and all your super.

If workers stay until the plant closes they will receive all entitements but some may choose to leave if they find other employment which is within their rights leaving less people to do the work. BTW a lot of the workers at the Holden plant did not even bother to turn up for work today, acceptable I think not.

It amuses me somewhat when people think it is OK to up and leave their job after a company may have spent thousands training them and the company has to accept their decision (but it is their  right) but if they are made redundant workers cry and all the union bosses scream that it is unfair even though the company is losing money and cannot compete because of the high dollar, down turn in production because they are not selling holdens and high wages.

It's called progress and is happening all over the world not just here, get used to it because it will get worse as more countries produce everything much cheaper then we do here.

[lakeland27]

do what exactly ? abetz says 'ooh they can work in the mines' he seems ignorant of a very long waiting list for unskilled jobs. assembly line skills are not applicable as 'skills' in the mining sector.

[daydream**believer]

Other businesses dont get Gov handout when they fail. Why should Holden continually get them?

[daydream**believer]

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11170914

[nero_bolt]

Mr Devereux said suggestions Holden would shut down no matter what assistance the government gave were hypothetical.

"We are already past that point," he said.

"This is an irreversible decision that General Motors has made on a global basis that when we lookat our business case for making things in this country that it just does not stack up to the other options that we have."

Mr Devereux said both sides of politics were aware of Holden's business case, and the carbon tax was "not irrelevant".

"I think it would be disingenuous of me and illogical to say that input costs and the price of the kilowatt hour of electricity doesn't have some bearing on the price of a car," he said.