Olymel, the Canada-based meat-products supplier, has restarted output at a factory that had seen two weeks of industrial action.
Production at the site in Drummondville in Quebec resumed today (19 June) and should return to 100% output by Wednesday, an Olymel spokesperson told Just Food.
Workers at the facility went on strike on 26 May but, on Friday, the company announced the employees had agreed to a pay offer.
“Basically, without going into details, [the deal was for] salary increases as well as bonus increases; the agreement proposed by the conciliator was accepted at 93.6%,” the Olymel spokesperson said.
The strike had led to a halt in operations at the Drummondville facility, which makes bacon products.
“Operations are gradually resuming from today towards all steps of production from injection to pressing and slicing to packaging,” the spokesperson said.
Initially, Olymel was able to use inventory to supply customers. It also has a bacon plant in Cornwall in Ontario.
“We are in the process of assessing the impacts and losses that the company may have suffered, but it is too early to conclude,” the spokesperson added.
Last month, Olymel announced it would cut around 80 jobs as it eases its hog production in western Canada. The Canadian pork producer revealed that it will be closing five sow units in Alberta and one in Saskatchewan, dropping Olymel’s western sow herd from 57,000 to 40,000.
Olymel closed a pork facility in Vallée-Jonction in Quebec in May, cutting 994 jobs. In February, the company axed 170 positions with the closure of two plants in Blainville and Laval.
