Kinleith worker reaches 50 years of service

The idea of retirement is usually an appealing one – but not for Kinleith worker Norm McEwan.

The hard-working 70-yearold has just celebrated 50 years working at Kinleith Mill - only the second employee to do so.

Looking back, he said it all began in 1964 when he moved to Tokoroa with his wife of 51 years Gladys.

‘‘My brother-in-law had a job out here so I had a look at what he was doing and thought that would do me.’’

As a fit, young lad Norm joined what was known back then as the odd gang.

‘‘I was the dog’s body, you did everything and learned all the manual jobs.’’

He said everything used to come on site in bags of up to 100 pounds. ‘‘It was intensive labour.’’ He moved within the company a few times before landing a job in the boiling house in 1966 – a place that has held his attention ever since.

‘‘I like the job, I like the people,’’ he said.

But it was hard yakka.

Back then the boys worked eight-hour shifts, six on two off, he said.

‘‘You did it but it wasn’t ideal.’’

Norm said he was one of the main instigators who pushed for 12-hour shifts.

‘‘We did a trial 15 years ago then when we had the last big strike they pushed the 12-hour shift on to us.

‘‘They didn’t have to push it on me though, I accepted it with open arms.’’

He said ever since then it has been ‘‘very easy’’ to work and have a life.

The father of two lived in Tokoroa for 40 years before setting up shop at Mt Maunganui and said he enjoys the constant travel.

‘‘I tell everyone I have two holidays every week. I drive over the Kaimais and say ‘ah, I’m going to have a holiday in Tokoroa’.’’

Working as a boiler operator for 12 hours straight is not the usual definition of the word holiday but then Norm is not your usual kind of bloke.

‘‘I’m not a workaholic – a workaholic works a lot because he has to, I like my job.’’ He said he stays at his daughter’s house in Tokoroa during shifts before heading back over the mountain range for a more conventional type of break.

Norm’s love for his job has weathered some serious changes in the half-decade he has been employed there.

He said he recalls the days of the old boilers where they would have molten smelt runoff coming out of the furnace.

Back then there were three boilers running, he said.

‘‘When we would get heavy runoffs there would be some interesting explosions.’’

Automation has been huge, he said.

‘‘When I first started you would go out and hold the valve and say ‘and turn it for a little bit of that, a little bit right, and a little bit left’, now I do it all on the computer – it’s made my life very easy.’’

But with automation came the decrease in the need for man power, he said.

Where once a boiler recovery needed three workers to man it, it now only requires two, he said.

Like most who lived in Tokoroa at the time, Norm said many of his friends lost jobs during the big lay-offs.

When Norm first clocked in in 1964, employee numbers were around 4500. Today the company employs approximately 600 staff.

‘‘We expected it but it’s not an easy thing to go through,’’ Norm said.

Norm said there was one time he contemplated leaving the industry to run a motel but then the recession hit and he decided to tie-ho.

‘‘I stayed and I don’t regret it at all. I like the challenge, when something goes wrong I like working out how to fix it in the most efficient way.’’

When asked if retirement is on the cards anytime soon he said he will leave that up to his work colleagues.

‘‘ When I start making mistakes, that’s when I’ll seriously consider it – and someone will tell me.’’