Loggers Launch Job Save Campaign

Date: 07 March 2003

More than 100 loggers will gather outside the Victorian Parliament House 10am this morning to launch a statewide television campaign calling on the Bracks Government to save rural jobs by managing forests better.

The television advertisements will screen statewide starting this weekend to protest at the State Government's failure to better structure the forest industry to provide secure regional jobs with fair pay rates and decent workplace safety standards.

The loggers are in the tenth day of the forest management protest outside Parliament House, which began after the Bracks Government failed to stop loggers being exploited by milling companies in Victoria's central highlands.

Michael O'Connor, the national assistant secretary of the CFMEU's Forestry and Furnishing Division, said the Victorian forest industry needed restructuring to provide Victorian logging families and local rural communities with some financial security.

"Recent studies have shown every timber job generates six full-time jobs in rural towns. Mr Bracks must govern for all Victorians, not just city voters.''

Mr O'Connor said the Bracks Government had pledged to manage forests better so that all workers get a fair go and not just the timber yards.

"This is not about cutting down more trees, it is about managing existing forest areas better so that loggers are not forced to work below their costs,'' he said.

WHAT: Launch of loggers' TV campaign to save rural jobs

WHERE: Outside Parliament House, Spring St.

WHEN: 10am, Friday March 07, 2003

For further information

Contact:	Michael O’Connor
Union:	Labor Council of NSW
Contact Mobile:	0418 550 831

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