990

50 jobs in a knitwear factory in Dunedin

430 jobs in a Fisher and Paykel factory in Dunedin.

500 jobs at ANZ/National Bank.

I worked in the National Bank credit card centre for a couple of months. The two women I was working with were staunch union members who had been working at the bank for years. I learned a little bit about their lives while working, even though I was very shy back then. They were both single mothers, one called the father of their child a 'sperm donor' he drove a BMW and claimed his income was too low to pay child-support They traded stories of trying to buy warm coats for the kids while on the DPB.

I don't know if they're still working there; I don't know if that work is going to be moved. But I do know that every single one of the 990 people who will be told that their labour is no longer wanted has a story to tell about work. That what that work meant for them, and what having it taken for them will mean, is never going to be told. In the news they are just numbers.