Cowboys offer footy tickets for refinery workers

The North Queensland Toyota Cowboys, in partnership with Ticketek, are offering complimentary tickets to tonight's Round 3 NRL match against the Roosters to all workers and their families affected by mass retrenchments at the QNI Yabulu nickel refinery.

An offer of general admission tickets to the 777 retrenched workers and their families has been made after consultation between the Cowboys, Ticketek and the Northern District branch of the Australian Workers' Union.

Cowboys CEO Greg Tonner said the club and Ticketek were pleased to be able to work together in consultation with the AWU to offer the footy tickets to refinery workers and families doing it tough following the loss of 237 refinery jobs in January and a further 550 in the past week.

"We're all about community at the Cowboys, so when members of our community are faced with hardship, we want to do our bit to try to alleviate some of the pain," Mr Tonner said.

"With the help of our ticketing partner Ticketek, we're thrilled to offer a night out at the footy."

AWU Northern District Secretary Cowboy Stockham applauded the offer.

"Our workers at the refinery all support the Cowboys and have ridden the highs and lows with the team over the years, and this extremely generous offer by the club and Ticketek is the Cowboys returning that support in fine style," Mr Stockham said.

Affected refinery employees can claim their general admission tickets to the Cowboys-Roosters game from 4pm on Thursday 17 March at the Northern gate ticket box next to the membership window. Look for the AWU signage and a union representative will be there with a list of workers.