Dozens of employees at Osem Investments Ltd.'s (controlled by Nestle SA (SWX:NESN)) (TASE: OSEM) Nestle ice cream factory in Kiryat Malachi demonstrated today against the management's decision to move the factory to Arad at the request of Minister of Finance Yair Lapid. Workers committee chairman Moshe Machlouf said that the workers had learned from the media about the plan to move the plant.
Although Lapid said that opening the factory in Arad was designed to help people who had lost their jobs, Machlouf said that deception was being practiced. "The Finance Minister is playing a shell game with the public. He's not opening a new factory in Arad; he's moving a factory," he said.
"Osem management is spitting in our faces," Machlouf continued. "They took everything from me; this is Yair Lapid's thanks. I've been working here 28 years." Another worker also threatened that the plant's workers would not help train their replacements in Arad. "We've all lost our jobs. We won't let people from Arad be trained. Ice cream won't leave here," he threatened. "They lied to us and cheated us. It's a scandal, and it won't happen."
Anat, another worker at the Kiryat Malachi plant, said that all the workers were in shock at the announcement in the media. "Beyond the fact that there were promises from Osem chairman of the board Dan Propper that the new factory would be built close by, how can they lie like that? They're closing the current factory, and what about us, the workers? Don't Kiryat Malachi and the area around it count?"
Osem said in response, "As the Osem CEO wrote to the workers, Osem will make sure that the Kiryat Malachi workers, an inseparable part of the Osem family, have jobs, just as the company has done up until now. The employment solutions will include jobs at nearby Osem factories in Kiryat Gat (Tzabar and Bonjour) and another in Sderot. Workers who want to move to Arad to work in the new plant will receive assistance from the company in moving there."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on November 2, 2014
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