ACTU – National Disgrace: LNP force Holden to close after 150 years

20 October 2017

Workers special ceremony as the last car rolled off the production line (Photo: AMWU)

Today, Australia’s last major car manufacturing plant closes its doors – putting the final nail in the coffin of an industry that has employed hundreds of thousands of Australians.
Holden began in Adelaide over 150 years ago, and is an Australian institution that has employed thousands of workers, yet it is also part of an industry that successive coalition governments chose to walk away from.

The decision to abandon an industry which was a source of good, steady jobs for generations, is devastating.

For a sitting Government to allow the collapse and closure of an industry that has formed part of the backbone of our nation is a slight against not only industry workers, but all Australian working people.

Quotes attributable to ACTU President Ged Kearney:

• “Today is a sad day for the workers of Holden’s Elizabeth factory. These workers have been abandoned by a Government clinging to broken neo-liberal ideology.”
• “Holden and the car industry have been a major part of Australian culture, providing jobs and skills to hundreds of thousands of working Australians for generations.”
• “Workers in our automotive manufacturing sector have been abandoned by successive coalition governments. The way they have been treated is cruel and negligent.”
• “The Turnbull Government’s decision to desert our car industry takes our entire country backwards. The loss of jobs and industry is devastating to our country and our economy.”
• “We stand with all the workers facing an uncertain future. We will support them, help them retrain, and become reemployed. We will not abandon these hard working Australians.”
• “The Turnbull Government urgently needs to come up with a proper plan to support the future of manufacturing and working people in Australia.”