"For the people affected by the Cadbury closedown — particularly if they’ve been there for quite a while — it’s a huge thing in their life," he said.
"I hope that the processes going on now is going to give them as good an outcome as they can get, maybe in the form of a redundancy payment, if they’re going to close.
"The best hope for them is that there’s the other jobs in an economy that is growing, [there are] other opportunities in Dunedin.
"For the people who work at Cadbury, it’s obviously pretty difficult for them . . . that’s pretty tough on them."
Mr English said he was hopeful with assistance from city and business leaders the workers could be absorbed into the local job market.
"I’ve been through this in the closure of Mataura freezing workers.
"People turned out to be fairly resilient. Not everyone got what they wanted, of course, but they did better than we expected at the time . . . and hopefully that’s the result here," Mr English said.
The union Etu, and Mondelez, have been tight-lipped in response to queries after a closure consultation meeting in Dunedin on Tuesday. Last week, the union resisted Mondelez’s efforts to draw the consultation process to a close. However, the ODT understands the final decision is now imminent.
Last month, Mondelez announced its plan to shut the Dunedin factory by March 2018, and keep the tourist attraction Cadbury World. About 360 workers could lose their jobs.
