The meat processing company Olymel is moving ahead of the announced closing stages of its pig slaughtering and cutting plant in Vallée-Jonction, in Beauce.

Thus, the end of an evening shift, initially scheduled for mid-September, is brought forward to July 22, with the start of the two weeks of summer vacation.

Olymel justifies this decision to bring forward the end of one of the two shifts at Vallée-Jonction by the increased difficulties in managing its plant following the departure of 161 employees since the announcement of the closure, last April 16.

Upon their return from vacation on August 7, the remaining 260 evening shift employees will be reassigned to the plant’s main day shift, to mitigate the risk of labor shortages by the time of full shutdown which is scheduled for December 22.

In addition, after a special agreement with the union of workers in Vallée-Jonction, Olymel indicates that it has implemented a temporary program of work retention bonuses “with the aim of ensuring the maintenance of the operations of the (production) chain. until closing next December. »

The Olymel plant in Vallée-Jonction employed 994 people when it announced its closure for the end of December.

According to Olymel, the program to relocate employees to its other pork plants in Quebec, which was put in place shortly after the announcement of the closure at Vallée-Jonction, has attracted around a hundred employees so far.