Trade unions have come under fire over claims that the response to closure of meat processing plants in Scotland has been inadequate. Vion Foods intends to close a plant in Broxburn, West Lothian, directly threatening 1,700 jobs, but critics say no effort has been made to resist the proposed closure.  

Vion has recently received media attention for its decision to bypass farmers’ co-operatives and insist on paying farmers directly. The move, which Vion attempted with two separate marketing groups, was widely criticised as an unethical abuse of power when an Early Day Motion was tabled by MPs in June.

Workers’ criticism has focused on the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (USDAW), which has participated in a ‘task force’ set up by the Scottish government, but which workers at the plant have suggested allowed the focus of the closure to be shifted to Vion’s continued profitability, rather than consideration of their needs and precarious situation.

Vion, a Dutch farmer-owned company, is the UK’s largest slaughterer. It has 46 sites in the country. The company has said its closures and efforts to undermine farmers’ cooperatives are in the interest of ‘shortening supply chains’ and maintaining profitability in the competitive European market; the company claims smaller British based facilities are less efficient.

However, in response to the company’s attempts to bypass cooperative Graig Producers, farmers’ groups said Vion’s tactics risked nebulising farmers, threatening the viability of small and medium sized family farms and crushing their interest groups.

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