Angry mill workers face up to bleak midwinter
Selkirk mill workers face a bleak Christmas after two of the town's oldest mills closed their doors this week, leaving 45 employees without a job.
On Tuesday, 21 staff from Riverside Spinning Mills, formerly Whinfield Mills, were made redundant and today a further 24 will finish at Border Weaving Company, formerly Heather Mills. A skeleton staff of seven will remain in place until mid-January to help with the wind down.
The two firms were bought from Edinburgh Woollen Mill by the Richard Roberts Group in March, but were recently handed over to liquidators after suffering cash-flow problems and a downturn in sales.
This week's closures left a bitter taste in the mouth for staff who found themselves jobless just a week before Christmas, but mill manager Jim Nicol praised workers at Riverside Spinning Mills, many of whom stayed on following the closure to complete customer orders.
He said: "Between them they have 337 years of service, with some here as long as 40 years. It's been a difficult time, but the workforce has been very honourable and very loyal, as you'd expect textile workers to be. It's a credit to them and their work ethic that they're willing to come in to complete orders."
However, staff on the floor at both mills spoke out against the handling of the closures by director Andrew Bryars, and slammed bosses for abandoning loyal workers and leaving them to wind up business without explanation.
Production manager at Whinfield, Brian Cassidy, told The Wee Paper: "It's shocking how it's been handled. I can't believe how it's been done in this day and age.
"If they had been honest up front and told us it couldn't go on, we could've accepted that, but there's been nothing from them at all. There was no-one even here to say thanks or sorry – it's a disgrace.
"The whole thing's been heartbreaking and the boys are all pretty depressed. It's not the fact that they're losing their jobs, it's the way it's been handled."
An insider at Heather Mills commented: "All along we've heard nothing from bosses and only found out from administrators last week that we would be made redundant on Friday. People have given their lives to this company and this is how we're repaid. It's a bloody disgrace."
The Wee Paper made repeated attempts to contact director Andrew Bryars for a comment.
The closures came in the week new figures showed the number of people claiming unemployment benefit in the UK had risen by 62 per cent in the last 12 months and, on Wednesday, local MP Michael Moore called on Westminster to do more to save rural communities from economic collapse.
He said: "These figures are yet more proof, if it were needed, of the impact of the economic downturn on the Borders economy.
"There can be no doubt now that our economy is shrinking, but what is most concerning is that it seems to be shrinking at a faster rate than other areas.
"Furthermore, some of our traditional manufacturing industries, such as textiles, are finding times particularly difficult. This is just not good enough."
Despite anger surrounding the closure, workers at Heather Mills this week clubbed together to donate around 200 to the children's ward at Borders General Hospital.
"Even though everyone's losing their jobs, we still wanted to do a collection for the children," spinner Ian Reid said. "Last year, we collected money for children in Africa and we thought it was important to do something like that again, despite what's been going on at the mill."
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Weather for Selkirk
Thursday 24 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 10 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: East
