Unions to talk to Hall’s management

UNIONS representing workers at the closure-threatened Hall’s of Broxburn meat factory are to hold fresh talks with management in the latest stage of a consultation on redundancies.

The meeting comes after First Minister Alex Salmond insisted the Scottish Government’s objective was to help “save all jobs” at the plant, where up to 1,700 could face redundancy.

Tracy Gilbert of the Usdaw union, which represents workers at the factory, said that tomorrow’s talks would be the second formal meeting since the announcement of the potential job losses.

The union official went on to say that the union would look at the details of its campaign to save the jobs after the meeting with management.

She said: “We’ll look at the strategy of the campaign and the other issues once we’ve had some answers at the consultation meeting on Wednesday. Hopefully things will be a bit clearer then.”

Meanwhile, the next meeting of a separate Scottish Government-backed emergency taskforce, involving trade unions and local politicians, will take place on 30 July.

Accounts published at Companies House showed that losses at Vion Food UK, which owns Hall’s, more than doubled to £46.6 million in the year to 31 December, 2011.