Olymel Restructuring, Shifting Product Volumes
By Olymel l.p
Features Business & Policy Farm BusinessApril 26, 2010 – Olymel l.p. announced today that it would embark on an extensive reorganizing of operations at its poultry products processing and pre-packaging plant in the Iberville district of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, which will result in the loss of 183 jobs and changes in three of its other facilities specializing in poultry.
April 26, 2010 – Olymel l.p.
announced today that it would embark on an extensive reorganizing of
operations at its poultry products processing and pre-packaging plant
in the Iberville district of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, which will
result in the loss of 183 jobs and changes within three of its other
facilities specializing in poultry.
The other three facilities affected are located in Berthierville (Lanaudière) and Ste-Rosalie (Montérégie) in Québec and Brampton, Ontario. The Iberville plant, which currently employs 308 workers, produces mainly skewers, tournedos steaks and other poultry, fresh traypack products, and deboned chicken thighs.
Olymel President and CEO Réjean Nadeau said in a release that the job losses at Iberville are unfortunate, but necessary due to the fact that the company is facing lower demand for certain products and has had to consequently combine operations. According to the company, the reorganization will result in significant gains in efficiency, better productivity and major cost savings, in particular on transportation costs.
Fresh pre-packaged product operations currently being done at the Iberville plant will be carried out at the poultry slaughtering and cutting plant at Berthierville, which already supplies raw materials to the Iberville plant. This will make it possible to maintain all the jobs at the Berthierville plant. The Iberville plant will also cease its chicken thigh deboning operations. The Olymel facility at Brampton, Ontario, which already specializes in this operation, has enough capacity to meet demand in this product category. Lastly, chicken deboning volumes currently being done at Berthierville will now be processed at the Olymel plant in Ste-Rosalie, which will mean that 25 employees will be recalled at this plant in the Montérégie.
125 jobs will be maintained at the Iberville plant in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu in the tournedos, skewer, souvlaki and processed poultry sector. The 183 employees whose positions will be eliminated, including 155 persons assigned to production, five to maintenance and 23 management personnel, have received layoff notices in accordance with the provisions of the Act respecting labour standards. The notice goes into effect in 12 weeks, on July 16. A re-assignment committee will be set up, and when hiring to meet its manpower needs at other facilities the company will give preference to employees who have been laid off.
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