High Liner Foods, Lunenberg, Nova Scotia, Canada, closed its fish processing plant in Burin, Newfoundland, today, throwing 120 people out of work.
The action came just after Standard & Poor changed its rating of the company to positive, based on its belief that the company "will maintain its solid market position in the North American value-added frozen seafood industry, while strengthening its profitability and credit measures over the next year."
High Liner had announced the pending closure of the Burin plant, which had been in operation for nearly 70 years, last May 4. Money to compensate laid-off workers has been held in trust, and it has come from penalties paid by High Liner to the provincial government for not meeting processing targets. It isn't clear how much money is in the fund.
Lee Obritsch, High Liner's vice-president of Canadian plant operations, said the company has been working with the provincial government and union to get the compensation money into the hands of Burin workers as soon as possible, but added that he is not sure when workers will get it.
High Liner took over the Burin plant in 2007. The plant had been processing fish from around the world and turning into finished products that were shipped out again. Obritsch praised the Burin work force, but he said changes in the global economy have made the plant not viable for the company.
