Source: Radio New Zealand
(File photo)
Major food company Heinz Wattie’s has proposed changes to discontinue some manufacturing operations in New Zealand.
The company, said the proposal would result in the closure of three manufacturing facilities in Auckland, Christchurch and Dunedin. Packing would also cease at the associated frozen lines in King St, Hastings.
The company said about 350 jobs were expected to be affected.
It outlined plans to axe the sale and production of a number of its products and brands, including frozen vegetables and Gregg’s coffee.
It would also no longer produce dips sold under the Mediterranean, Just Hummus and Good Taste Company brands.
Heinz Wattie’s said it would consult with staff on the plan, which it said had come about because of increasingly difficult manufacturing conditions.
‘Huge blow to workers’
E tū Union director Finn O’Dwyer Cunliffe told Checkpoint the proposal was a huge blow to workers and a “grim time”.
“It’s not great – this has been dumped on them this afternoon at very short notice.
“It is a huge blow to workers….it is a tough evening.”
He said some people had worked for Heinz Wattie’s or its subsidiaries for several decades.
The union were given just 45 minutes notice of announcements across various sites, he said.
“It hasn’t been handled in the best way.”
It was a tough time across the country for workers in the industry, O’Dwyer-Cunliffe said, and there’d been many closures.
The union was pushing for more time for feedback on the proposal with Heinz Wattie’s.
“The period they’ve proposed is completely inadequate and I think pretty disrespectful really, on top of pulling workers in on such short notice.”
Last October, Wattie’s announced it would further reduce its fruit and vegetable crops it sourced from its home in Hawke’s Bay, citing an ongoing struggle against cheaper imports.
The month before, it announced it would reduce the production of canned peaches.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand