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Both canneries will be shutdown for one week
Wednesday,
June 24, 2009
More than 4,000 employees will be without paychecks next week with the shutdown of the territory’s biggest private employers Star Kist Samoa and Samoa Packing.
General Manager of Samoa Packing Wilhelm Martin said that this will be the last maintenance shutdown for Samoa Packing before it closes permanently on September 30th. He said there’ll be major maintenance work for production equipment and clean up of the plant. The cannery will end production on Friday and be back at work Monday July 6.
Martin said there will be no further shutdown up to when the cannery closes in September. He said that depending on work attendance when the cannery resumes production, the cannery may be hiring a few employees.
Asked about the governor’s request for Samoa packing not to remove any more equipment form the Atuu plant, Martin said that this is still under discussion and no decision has been made.
Efforts to obtain comment from Star Kist General Manager Brett Butler were unsuccessful but cannery workers have said that their plant will also be shutdown all of next week for maintenance.
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