But in the town of Eden, one in every eight workers was preparing for their last day of work.

The Heinz Wattie tuna cannery was closing down after 50 years of operation at Cattle Bay, and 147 workers were being sacked, despite the fact that the previous year the cannery had made an $8 million profit.

The operation, which had employed generations of Eden families, was being moved partly to Port Lincoln in South Australia, and partly offshore to Thailand.

Only six years earlier, the people of Eden had fought off threats of a closure, by launching a national campaign urging people to buy Australian tuna.

Forming the “Workers of Greenseas” they promoted locally processed, dolphin safe Australian tuna.

The Eden workers also came up with the successful “Taste Tempters” range of flavoured tuna products for Greenseas in an effort to protect their industry.

Next week marks the tenth anniversary of the closure, when many locals will be remembering the devastating impact the closure had on the local economy.

At the time, the story was making waves in the national media.

Eden’s tuna processing industry and its workers became a symbol of the increasing trend for multinationals to turn their backs on local communities in favour of cheaper labour elsewhere.

Today, while people are much more conscious of the superior quality of food grown and processed in Australia, and the need to reduce “food miles”, these issues are still with us.

Next week’s Magnet will look at how the town has battled to rebuild its economy over the past decade.

We will also talk to some of the former workers, to see how they have fared.

On the morning of the closure, one of Eden’s 70 newly unemployed women, Rhonda Gallagher, told the Magnet;

“The Heinz company has said that we are not globally competitive. This may be so, but the Greenseas Tuna Cannery is globally unique, the plant is productive and efficient, the workers are loyal, conscientious, dedicated and very proud of the work they do and the products they produce.

“It will be very hard to say goodbye to a place that has been a part of many lives and an industry that has played an important role in a beautiful place called Eden.”