250 Workers stoo down at DSI due to faulty US parts

[jpd80]

Anyone confirm who supplier would be?

LINK

250 stood down at DSI Holdings
28 Mar, 2012 01:00 AM
WORKERS at Lavington’s DSI plant have been stood down until after Easter at the earliest.

The company stopped production yesterday because of a dispute with a US parts supplier.

Sean Morgan — the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union’s NSW vehicle division secretary — was shocked to hear of the stand-down of 250 workers.

He had arrived at the plant yesterday to assist in resolving an ongoing redundancies dispute.

“Essentially that has got to be put to the side because there’s a bigger issue to deal with,” Mr Morgan said.

“The workforce has been stood down following an all-hands meeting at 2pm.

“Unfortunately they have a vendor issue with one of their overseas suppliers, (which is) supplying the company with a faulty part.”

Mr Morgan said he was blind-sided by the announcement which devastated the DSI workforce.

“I just want to get it resolved,” he said.

“I just want people to go back to their jobs. This is never-ending.

“We’ve all got jobs today but these people are going home to uncertainty.”

The Border Mail attempted to speak with management at the Lavington plant but was told only that the stand-downs were related to a supply issue.

The company said senior *managers were all in meetings and no one was available.

Mr Morgan said he had been told the US company had supplied clutch plates to DSI for the past 2? years.

He said the plates were squealing and DSI had told the union they had been unable to resolve the problem.

“At the end of the shift today at 3.30pm, the whole plant will be closed for, in the immediate term, the rest of this week, all of next week, and my concern is that if the process isn’t fixed in America where the part is being manufactured, then this could be a protracted stand-down,” he said.

Mr Morgan said he had yesterday lodged an application with Fair Work Australia to test the legitimacy of the stand-downs, although he believed workers who had told him the fault lay with the American manufacturer.