For Immediate Release
January 13, 1999

National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) President Donna Reifschneider expressed disappointment today over the rejection of a strike settlement offer by workers at Quality Meat Packers Ltd., of Toronto, saying it ensures “the continued influx of up to an additional 25,000 Canadian hogs per week on American packing plants already stretched to their slaughter capacity.”

Members of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union voted to reject a contract offer today. The strike at Ontario's second largest hog packer began on Dec. 7. Live hog prices and lean hog futures in the U.S. experienced significant drops immediately following the announcement of the strike.

It is estimated that Canada is exporting 20 percent of its production to the U.S. for processing, up to 100,000 hogs per week. In 1998, approximately 4.2 million Canadian hogs were exported to the U.S., with an estimated 3.2 million imported as slaughter hogs.

“This is the third strike at a major Canadian hog packing plant in just over a year,” Reifschneider said. “It is totally unacceptable for Canada to export its labor unrest to the U.S., but that is exactly the effect these shutdowns have had.”

On Jan. 6, Reifschneider, along with NPPC CEO Al Tank and Trade Counsel Nick Giordano held meetings in Toronto and Ottawa with representatives of Agriculture Canada, provincial labor officials and pork industry leaders to request significant action be taken to ease the U.S. packer bottleneck that sent prices for live hogs to their lowest levels in history.

Reifschneider said Canadian officials agreed during the meeting to examine a plan supported by USDA whereby hogs from certain northern states could be sent to plants in western Canada where additional capacity exists. She added that under the plan, U.S. and Canadian government officials would devise a way to overcome the current exchange rate differential.

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