Union President Expresses Frustration Over Oscar Mayer Closure

The president of a union representing Oscar Mayer workers in Madison says he’s disappointed that the meat production company didn’t do more to avert the closure of its Madison plant.

Doug Leikness, the head of United Food & Commercial Workers Union Local 538, said that while the announcement of the plant’s closing came as a surprise, he said that workers did feel like “the writing was on the walls.”

He said that while the eight-story plant is in good condition, only one-third of it is being used by Oscar Mayer. A Kraft Heinz spokesperson said the goal of that is to “eliminate excess capacity.”

Leikness, who’s worked at Oscar Mayer for more than 20 years, isn’t satisfied with that response.

“They could have leased out office space,” he said. “Other businesses could have come in here and used these facilities. There’s things they could’ve done to add, rather than shut this huge thing down and wreck our community.”

Over the past few decades, the plant has narrowed down the number of products it makes. Currently, it mainly produces hot dogs and sliced ham and turkey. It used to produce Lunchables, but now that product is made at plants in Iowa and California instead.

Leikness’ comments came shortly before it was revealed that Kraft Heinz was working with the state to look for a company to potentially buy the Madison facility.

As it currently stands, it’s expected that about 1,000 jobs would be lost in the Madison area. The plant will close by early 2017.

Six other plants around the United States and Canada will be shut down as well. While plants in Columbia, Missouri, and Davenport, Iowa, are expected to undergo multi-million dollar renovations, both will see sizable layoffs as well. The Davenport workforce will go from 1,400 to 475 and the Columbia plant will drop from 500 to 350 employees.