McCain Foods workers will be consulted - EPMU

May 1, 2008

Workers affected by the closure of McCain Food's Timaru vegetable processing plant will have several months of consultation to get the best possible deal from the situation says the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union.

The closure will mean the loss or redeployment of 30 workers and is due to national over-capacity in the company's vegetable processing division.

EPMU lead organiser John Gardner says that many of the workers will be redeployed within McCain.

"The company has indicated there will be jobs available in their french-fry processing plant but there will still be some redundancies and workers who swap plants will face a significant change in shift patterns.

"Any plant closure is a regrettable situation but we will be closely consulting with the company up until the November closure in order to ensure we get the best possible outcome for our members.

"There has never been a question about the quality of the work or the product from the Timaru site but from what we understand it was chosen for closure as it is the least efficient McCain processor in the country due to aging plant and equipment."

McCain have cited factors including diminishing sales in Japan, China and South-East Asia for the over-capacity.

The EPMU's represents 50,000 working New Zealanders including 3000 in the food industry.

ENDS

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