'North Waikato/South Auckland regional update
The latest industry downturn has impacted our region in different ways with reports of “business as usual” from contractors supplying Indian markets to contractors working at 70% with an extended Christmas break to crews being parked up indefinitely.
The other challenge our some of our contractors are facing is having to cross over the Auckland boundary requiring business travel documents and regular COVID testing to be able to work. There has been some concern about when Auckland opens up with what that will do to the time it takes to get though border checkpoints and how that could impact travel times to get to site. An extra 15min wait when you are travelling an hour to get to site takes its toll.
Staffing is still an issue in our region - with some contractors not getting any responses to jobs advertised.
On a positive note 100% of our crew has had at least 1 COVID vaccination.'
- Sarah
This regional update from our Board Members was written November 2021 during the Covid pandemic and log price downturn. It featured in the December 2021 Christmas Update from Women in Forestry.
