More cost cutting at Kraft Heinz

Kraft Heinz has announced a new $2 billion (USD) five year `cost-savings' program with $1.2 billion of the savings expected to come from procurement and $800 million to come from manufacturing. The details of the impacts on workers are not yet known. But, in its 2020 Investor Day presentation, Kraft Heinz declared strategic choices will be made on where it will manufacture in-house and where it will utilize `external manufacturers' or co-packers.

Kraft Heinz has already announced the $3.2 billion sale (subject to regulatory approval) of portions of its cheese business to French dairy giant Groupe Lactalis as Kraft Heinz seeks to simplify its product portfolio and pay down debt. The deal will shift 3 production facilities in California, New York and Wisconsin to Lactalis, as well as a distribution centre in Wisconsin. About 750 workers will transfer from Kraft Heinz to Lactalis. As part of this deal, Kraft Heinz will co-pack certain cheese products for Lactalis in the U.S.

Kraft Heinz unions should seek to negotiate successor collective bargaining language to protect negotiated terms and conditions of employment in the case of any future sell offs.

In 2019, the IUF established an international union alliance of affiliates with members employed by Lactalis.