Most of the complaints have come from the major effect the reduction of Hillside services will have on surrounding and supporting engineering firms.
Engineering skills are expected to disappear from the city as young people struggle to find apprenticeships in what once was a flagship industry for Dunedin.
A strong engineering cluster remains in Dunedin but concern is around the future of the industry, particularly for young people eager to get jobs in an industry that makes real things.
Council of Trade Unions secretary Peter Conway said government procurement was one way of lifting job numbers in New Zealand, along with skill levels for all ages.
The Government was spending a major portion of money on rail but was not prepared to step in and tell KiwiRail to accept local contracts from the Hillside workshop.
In Brazil, local tenders had to be accepted as long as they were within 25% of an outside bid.
"While that would not be easily implemented, something moving in that direction would do plenty in supporting Kiwi jobs."
Otago Chamber of Commerce chief executive John Christie was one of the leaders of a broad-based campaign to obtain more work for Hillside.
The debate about Hillside and KiwiRail's obligations to its local workforce had become a wider debate about the whole of the New Zealand economy, he said.
The debate had shifted about a New Zealand content policy, ensuring that companies made their buying decisions on the best outcome for money.
"It could be that we see outside of New Zealand companies coming in to rebuild Christchurch to the detriment of our own workforce."
A debate around how much Kiwi work should be supported on a big project was a good debate to have. Dunedin was passionate as a city to retain jobs and skills but New Zealand was also becoming passionate as a country on the same issues, Mr Christie said.
Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei said if KiwiRail had selected Hillside for the major contracts, there would have been large flow-on effects for the community at large.
Apprenticeships would have been extended for young people and local businesses would have felt the benefits from being able to supply Hillside with some specialised services. That would allow local businesses to grow their enterprise and take on extra staff.
