Workers leave the Kraft Foods-Oscar Meyer headquarters and plant in Madison, Wis., Wednesday, November 4, 2015. Doug Leikness, who leads the union representing Oscar Mayer factory workers in Madison, said the announcement was completely unexpected. At the appropriate time, affected employees will receive severance benefits, outplacement services and other support to help them pursue new job opportunities.
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“The impact on Madison and the metro area has got to be in hundreds of millions of dollars”, Soglin said during an afternoon news conference Wednesday.
The headquarters complex, which includes a manufacturing plant, is located on the city’s north side.
The Oscar Mayer plant in Madison isn’t the only one shutting down: Six other sites in the USA and Canada will close, resulting in the loss of almost 3,000 jobs. The combination of Pittsburgh-based Heinz and Kraft earlier this year was engineered by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway and Brazilian investment firm 3G Capital, which has become known for its tight cost controls.
The new plant will be built several miles away from the current plant.
The company said about 250 corporate jobs in the Oscar Mayer and US meat business unit will be relocated from Madison, Wisconsin, to Chicago. He said his father also worked at the plant for 35 years and operated a pig farm, and remembers going with his father to deliver pigs to the plant. “Sad day in Madison”.
The news comes as the company is planning a new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Davenport, Iowa, according to the Associated Press.
Assembly Democratic Leader Peter Barca of Kenosha says the closing “accentuates the urgent need for action on jobs”. She said a team was being put together to survey workers’ skills and training needs.
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Heinz and Kraft merged this summer and company officials promptly began cost-cutting measures that mirrored Heinz’s 2013 acquisition by Berkshire Hathaway and 3G Capital. After the facilities close, Kraft Heinz will have 41 plants in North America that employ about 18,000 people.
