Dutch food company Vion has announced that the Hall's of Broxburn pork plant in West Lothian, Scotland, is at risk of closure, with the loss of 1,700 jobs.
The company informed its workers today, 5 July, that it would begin the 90-day consultation process with workers and their union, IUF-affiliated USDAW.
Vion acquired the Broxburn plant in August 2008 as part of their acquisition of Grampian Country Food Group. It employs 1,150 permanent and 595 agency workers at this major processing facility for Scottish pork.
Vion has been reviewing the business at group level [1] and has already made significant, detailed announcements on closures and job losses in the Netherlands and Germany. They have said the UK situation is more complex and will require further analysis. This is the first announcement concerning a UK business.
At the recent EFFAT conference for meat workers [2], delegates from the Netherlands, Germany and the UK met in side meetings to discuss the implications of the announcement of plant closures and redundancies at Vion Foods.