Nadeau Poultry manager Yves Landry is disappointed the Government of New Brunswick announced last Friday it will not intervene to clarify the intent of its original Order designating Nadeau Poultry Farm Ltd. as the federal plant in New Brunswick for processing New Brunswick-grown chickens. "The Ministerial Order said 'processing' not 'custom kill,'" he pointed out.

Landry said Olymel/Westco's proposal is to have Nadeau to "custom kill" only. The majority of jobs involved preparation, packing, maintenance, sanitation, and selling, processing tasks Nadeau was responsible for prior to Olymel/Westco moving almost 80 per cent of New Brunswick-grown chickens out of the province. "All of those roles and the jobs associated with them would be moved to Quebec," he said. "Olymel/Westco's proposal would mean rehiring only 50 workers, a far cry from the 165 laid off when they chose to send the majority of New Brunswick's live birds to Olymel in Quebec," said Landry.

New Brunswick jobs become Quebec jobs, Landry pointed out.

Landry indicated surprise as well at the government's refusal to intervene: "The government's release cited an objective analysis of the industry that concluded requiring chicken produced in the province to be processed at the Nadeau plant would warrant the level of employment it had prior to the layoffs:" Clearly, said Landry, the Order was meant to restore the level of employment prior to the live chickens going to Quebec.

Landry indicated the company appreciated the government's offer to mediate negotiations and confirmed that Nadeau had sent a letter to the Department indicating its willingness to discuss Olymel/Westco's proposal (January 22) and Nadeau Poultry's counter proposal (January 25th,). However, Nadeau, he said, requested that mediated discussion also focus on factors causing instability in the sector and on longer term solutions and strategies aimed at restoring stability of the supply managed system in the province.