Sounds like the “Adelaide Mitsubishi Ploy” to me. That old chestnut for managers to use in election years when you need some [more] public cash in the form of freebie government handouts - threaten to sack everyone and wait for the local party candidates to fight-out the rescue package. More Corporate Welfare or just old fashioned greed and (!)? Regardless the public never wins.

Yes to the dismay of some I am sure….I am still alive.
I have been somewhat reclusive as of late….I have no phone, no net, have spent less than $5 on the GXXX Gazette in the last two months…..so here we are 300 jobs to go from a proud Tasmanian company……perhaps they could slot in nicely at the pulp mill???....is that still going or what?? I notice they have been burning off the area where it is supposed to go. Is that part of the construction/destruction process?
Till next time

The directors of Blundstone and their families should migrate to Thailand or India and live in and spend their profits in the country where their new workers exist.  It would have been interesting to know, as part of the story, the level of profit Blundstone made over the past five years. 
Exploitation of cheap labour in over-populated countries, where people work for whatever crumbs they are thrown because there is no safety net as we enjoy (for the present at least), is an example of how “free trade” and globalisation only benefits those at the top of the heap while the masses suffer.
Little wonder governments don’t ensure that contraception is available to all - what would happen to profits if over-populated countries controlled their birth rates and no longer supplied slave labour?
Meanwhile our federal government has opened the door to cheap imports and has slashed tariffs, thus exporting a steady stream of our jobs, while at the same time penny pinching on education and research and new technology, thus ‘dumbing-down’ Australia, and we can no longer even pretend that we are ‘the clever country’. 
The following points, from ABC News Online 17/1/06, “Govt ‘disappointed’ by Tas bootmaker’s offshore move” is a good indicator of what will occur should the latest government-backed industry, the pulp mill, go ahead:
‘Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane says the Federal Government is disappointed and surprised at the decision by the Tasmanian bootmaker Blundstone to move its manufacturing offshore.
About 300 jobs will be lost when the company’s factory in Hobart is relocated to Asia.
The company says it is relocating because it cannot compete with low-cost imports.
The Minister says Blundstone has received significant taxpayer-funded assistance ... .  “We have committed almost $1.5 billion as a Government towards supporting the textile, clothing and footwear industry in Australia and the company itself has been a recipient of many millions of dollars worth of assistance.”’
Wonder which path the pulp mill directors would take if they got the government nod to build - would the mill and our forests (approx. 20 year+ contracts to burn and bulldoze - terms unknown) be sold to overseas interests who would bring in their own cheap labour, or would directors bleat to government about not being able to compete with cheap overseas labour costs and lax overseas environmental requirements and get permission to bring in foreign workers, or write their own special workplace agreements - take it or leave it basis? 
Ready access to state and federal money to top up profits and private, non-competitive deals are other methods of filling the coffers of directors at the expense of workers.  In turn, company directors give political parties back a small portion of what they have received from government - at election time - in the form of donations to parties, thus the cosy little arrangements continue and ‘dudded’ workers receive fewer pay rises and pay more taxes - and vote the old parties back in again - sigh!

It’s only been 24 hours and the ususal pathetic pro-Pulp Mill nutters have come out of the woodwork with the predictable spray - yes we “need” a pulp mill to absorb the 300 job lossess at Blundstone. Now call me old-fashioned but I doubt that too many Blundstone workers have degrees in Cheminical Engineering - and I doubt those who do have the cash or desire to transplant their families from Hobart to George Town. Talk about desperate tactics.

I can’t do better than Turn off the Telly’s post, but I’d invite any one with a few minutes to spare to drive down Weld street in South Hobart, and check out Blundstone’s Tannery.
This decrepit looking place looks like it hasn’t had any money spent on it for many years; So I wonder where all this government grant money has been spent? Not on improving plant & equipment efficiencies surely.

Like the CFMEU suggests I’ll be looking elsewhere for my workboots from now on & I naively hope that the company can save more labour costs by absorbing Mr Gunn’s position with an Indian replacement.
Meanwhile it’s alway the battlers that suffer.

I have a great idea,have a free trade agreement with china,they manufacture and we buy,this will be great as it will keep chinese in a job but decimate our workforce.oz manufacturing is going to be just a memory.good on ya johnny,look after every other country but your own.

It is said constantly “buy australian” but when on a pension how can one possibly overlook, excellent socks @1.10 or jeans every bit as good as any made for $19.95 or shoes of every description
(with i might add ,arch support)from $29.95 from the “Rivers ” stores , now if they can do it why can,t they all, after all, all the others source their product from China also! though you have to look carefully for the tags.
    I was in a supermarket one day and watched for a while in amusement as one after another picked up bags of potatoes ,when right next to them were bags with twice the amount on special for the same price, supermarkets have now got the message!
  Australians seem flush with money or they walk around with shit in their eyes, yapping on their goddamn mobiles,one guy was ringing his mum,
“wheres the weetbix mum ! can,t find em anywhere”
they were right in front of him, and i thought fuck it ! what the hell, let him waste his money, we’ve become a consumer society gone mad !
                      d.d.

A curious cursor perhaps. In the Mercury’s entertainment section it is advertised that Blundstone’s is the major sponsor of a comedy gig called “Tassie Stands Up”.

Images of Tasmanians buying up Blunnies before they sell out and booting out the Lennon government. Steel caps required.