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Oscar Mayer to Close Madison Plant, 1,000 Jobs Lost PDF Print E-mail
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Written by GBP Staff   
Thursday, 05 November 2015 21:20

oscar-mayer-workerMADISON - Madison’s Oscar Mayer plant, a fixture on the East Side for nearly 100 years, will close and its headquarters will move to Chicago, putting 1,000 employees out of work, parent company Kraft Heinz announced Wednesday.

The loss of one of Madison’s signature companies and long time largest private employer is part of a plan by parent company Kraft Heinz to close seven factories in the U.S. and Canada, four months after the two food giants merged.

The closings will eliminate 2,600 positions nationally and consolidate Oscar Mayer’s headquarters and Kraft Heinz’s U.S. Meats division in Chicago in 2016, shifting 250 jobs to the Chicago area, the company said.

“We had no indication,” said Doug Leikness, the head of the union representing Oscar Mayer factory workers in Madison. He said union and management officials met Monday and there was no sign a closing was imminent. “They duped us,” Leikness, sounding stunned, said of Kraft officials.

Leikness, president of United Food & Commercial Workers Local 538, said he was told just after 1 p.m. that production at the factory, 910 Mayer Ave., will end by early 2017.

According to a report in the Wisconsin State Journal, a meeting with employees was held at 1:30 p.m., and Kraft Heinz released its statement to the media at the same time.

At its peak, in the mid-1970s, Oscar Mayer was Madison’s No. 1 private employer, with more than 4,000 workers at its offices and plant at Packers and Commercial avenues. At that time, much of the working class culture of east side Madison revolved around the plant and the nearby American Family Insurance headquarters.

jon-erpenbachMass layoffs in Wisconsin have increased dramatically in 2015 leaving thousands of Wisconsin workers unemployed and looking for work. New data from the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development shows that 9,431 Wisconsin workers(not including Oscar Mayer) have been affected by mass layoffs and plant closings so far this year compared to 6,186 in all of 2014.

“I am devastated for the hard working men and women of the greater Madison area that have given their professional lives to Oscar Meyer", said State Senator Jon Erpenbach of Madison. "The effect of this plant closing on the people and economy of Dane County will be felt for years to come. With the loss of 1,000 jobs, both laborer and management, the mass layoff number for Wisconsin this year is abysmal.”

“At this pace we may double the number of mass layoffs and plant closings from 2014", Erpenbach continued. "These job losses are a direct result of the failed leadership of Governor Walker and the Republican Legislature who have followed him blindly on this road to economic ruin."

 

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