Weston Bakeries plans to end ongoing labour issues at one of its plants in the Montreal area by moving all the facility’s operations to its other bakeries in the province by the end of this year.
The company, which operates in Quebec under the name Boulangeries Weston Quebec, said an evaluation of its manufacturing network in the province showed “significant and recurring reliability issues” at its bakery at Longueuil, on the south shore of the St. Lawrence.
Those issues “resulted in higher costs and lower customer service levels,” the company said in a release Friday.
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Production levels now handled at Longueuil will be “transferred gradually” to other Weston facilities in Quebec, as per a transition plan that the company has yet to make public, other than to say production will be “progressively reduced” leading up to full closure on Dec. 31.
“Our preference was to conduct an in-depth evaluation of the Longueuil operations and take the necessary corrective measures to attain a satisfactory reliability level — one that would compare with the other plants of the company,” Sylvain Roussel, vice-president of human resources for Boulangeries Weston, said in the release.
Roussel also cited “rigid work schedules” at the Longueuil bakery that “prevented Weston from meeting the delivery requirements of its customers.”
Weston said in its release that the Longueuil bakery’s unionized employees on Friday rejected the company’s last settlement offer for renewal of their collective agreement.
That offer, the company said, proposed a four-year contract, a two per cent “salary adjustment” for each year of the contract, and “maintenance of the three-day work schedule that met the delivery requirements of (Weston’s) customers.”
Workers at Longueuil will get severance “well in excess of statutory minimums” and assistance with relocation, Weston said. The total number of Boulangeries Weston employees is “projected to remain stable.”
