200 jobs to go at Malton Bacon Factory (From York Press)

200 jobs to go at Malton Bacon Factory

8:40am Wednesday 21st January 2009 in News By Gavin Aitchison, gavin.aitchison@thepress.co.uk

Workers leave Malton Bacon Factory during the afternoon shift change

Updated: HUNDREDS of workers at Malton Bacon Factory are to lose their jobs or see them change under a cost-cutting shake-up by the plant’s parent company.

The total impact will be 200 job losses. The total number of redundancies, including agency staff, will be higher but about 140 new jobs will be created. The plant currently employs 1,000 people.

A trade union representative today said workers had been left “shell-shocked” by the news, which was announced in a series of staff meetings. A 90-day consultation with staff begins on Friday.

Vion Food Group plans to close its cooked meat operations in Ryedale, and transfer them to Haverhill in Suffolk, while all abattoir operations in Suffolk will be transferred to North Yorkshire in return. Vion said the move would create two “centres of excellence”.

Alasdair Cox, director of corporate affairs at the Dutch-owned firm, said the changes were regrettable, but said: “Due to increasingly competitive pressures from the market-place, we must continually look to optimise our production facilities, to ensure sound foundations for the development of the UK business. The commitment from the teams at Haverhill and Malton has never been in question.”

Keith Russell, area organiser for the trade union Usdaw, said most workers affected were local women.

He is meeting company management on Friday to discuss the plans, but said the blame lay with the previous owners, Grampian Food Group, rather than Vion, for failing to invest in new machinery.

Mr Russell said: “Clearly, we will be actively seeking the cessation of any temps and agencies, seeking volunteers from other sections to create vacancies, and giving priority when filling new posts to anybody who is affected.

“We are also anxious that the company agrees to a training period, because we are talking about people going from machinery, handling and packaging to semi-skilled work.”

He said staff were “genuinely shell-shocked” when the news was announced.

Theresa Lindsay, assistant business director at Yorkshire Forward, said the factory was vital to the local economy and said the organisation would work with Vion to safeguard its future.

Under the plans, Haverhill will focus on the production and processing of cooked meats, while Ryedale will focus on producing fresh pork and bacon.

One factory worker, who did not want to be named, said: “The company have dealt with things through the proper channels, and they have not been underhand. A lot of people here travel to work from places like Hull, so even if they don’t lose their job, if they are going to be transferred back into butchery from packaged goods, they won’t want to travel so far to do a job like that.”

Local reaction

Malton councillor Paul Andrews said he was “horrified” to hear of the redundancies and called the news a “tragedy”.

He said: “It will be a devastating blow for those who have lost their jobs and their families.”

His fellow Malton councillor Anthony Helmsley said Ryedaleoften lost out economically due its infrastructure. He said: “There should be a central road from Huttons Ambo to Bramblefield, behind the factories, which would improve communications and transport.”