Most Manitoba hog producers will still be able to sell their hogs and
get a reasonable price for them if a labour dispute shuts down the
Springhill Farms plant in Neepawa, Man., says the chief executive
officer of Manitoba’s largest hog marketing agency.
“The producers that market through Manitoba Pork (Marketing
Co-operative) and have their hogs slaughtered at Springhill Farms have
nothing to worry about,” Perry Mohr said.
“We will market their hogs. We will find a home for them.”
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But farmers who sell directly to the Springhill Farms plant will not be
so lucky.
The Neepawa plant can kill about 18,000 hogs per week, which Manitoba
Agriculture market analyst Janet Honey said is about one-quarter of the
province’s weekly slaughter.
“Unless Maple Leaf (Foods) manages to absorb those hogs, they’ll be
looking for another home somewhere.”
Mohr said Maple Leaf can increase production at Brandon and through
smaller Winnipeg plants.
Honey said these plants could add Saturday shifts, which would help
alleviate a sudden surge of hogs looking for slaughter.
Mohr said Manitoba’s other plants have capacity to process all the hogs
that could be displaced by a Springhill Farms shutdown, but he doubts
they will find it worth their while to do so. He expects 3,000 to 4,000
hogs per week will have to leave Manitoba for plants in other Canadian
provinces and the United States.
Most producers’ prices won’t be affected because of formula-based
prices negotiated with packers.
“Our hog prices are North America-based,” Mohr said.
Concerns about Springhill Farms shutting down either temporarily or
permanently come from the escalating war of words between the plant’s
management and its workers’ union.
The union set a strike deadline of June 1 after voting 96 percent in
favour of a strike vote on May 9.
The company has issued employees an
18-week layoff notice, which it says it will activate if the union
calls a strike.
The company is asking workers to take a wage cut so that its wages are
closer to those paid by the Maple Leaf Foods plant in Brandon.
Keystone Agricultural Producers president Weldon Newton said shutting
the plant will hurt all Manitoba hog producers.
“We need that plant,” said Newton, a hog producer who lives in the
Neepawa area.”We’ve only got two (large) plants left in the province.”
He said he thinks management and the union will reach a deal.”There’s a
lot of posturing going on right now,” he said.
“I hope that’s all it is.”
