Wisconsin State Journal
By Judy Newman

A union official says 85 employees were laid off this week at the Kraft/Oscar Mayer plant in Madison. Kraft/Oscar Mayer spokeswoman Sydney Lindner would not confirm the number but said hot dogs are a highly seasonal product and the work-force decline is typical to past years.

An expected seasonal decline in hot-dog sales has resulted in layoffs at the Kraft/Oscar Mayer plant in Madison. But a union official says he thinks the reduction is temporary, and says the factory may add production next year, possibly even the company’s popular deli-sliced meats.

Eighty-five Oscar Mayer employees were laid off Tuesday, said Joe Jerzewski, president of United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 538 in Madison. All are newer workers at the plant; no one hired before February was affected, Jerzewski said.

He thinks the employees will be called back in January. He said even after the layoff, the plant has about 900 employees who are union members, up from 850 a year ago.

Kraft/Oscar Mayer spokeswoman Sydney Lindner would not confirm the number of workers on layoff but said the layoff is due to typical seasonal demand.

Employees are expected to be recalled during the first three months of 2010, Lindner said.

“With a highly seasonal product like hot dogs, work-force reductions are not uncommon. Our seasonal demand drop-off for hot dogs was expected. Since we communicated the likelihood of layoffs with all of our new hires this year, this should not have come as a surprise,” she said.

This has been a good year for hot dogs, Lindner said.

“Category dollar sales are up and Oscar Mayer has also experienced an increase. … To date, we’ve sold more hot dogs than last year. We attribute this in part to the economy, but hot dogs have always been a family favorite,” she said.

The Madison Oscar Mayer plant, 910 Mayer Ave., will add production of 5 million pounds of smoked turkey later this year, Jerzewski said. He also said meetings are being held about the possibility of bringing in new products, maybe even a line of the Oscar Mayer Deli Fresh shaved meats, currently the No. 1 seller for Kraft/Oscar Mayer.

“We’re sure hoping to get it,” the union leader said. “We are in line to get some additional lines in the Madison plant. We have ample space.”

Jerzewski said the company has reduced fixed costs by tearing down 18 structures in the past year, mainly maintenance and storage buildings, leaving about 50 buildings at its East Side complex, along Packers and Commercial avenues.

Officials at the Northfield, Ill., headquarters of Kraft Foods offered little information.

“While we cannot speculate about the future, Oscar Mayer remains a key regional business for Kraft Foods. It is one of the company’s key brands, with revenues exceeding $1 billion. We have invested more than $120 million in the Madison facility in the last six years and are focused on our expanded cold-cut and hot-dog lines there,” spokeswoman Lisa Gibbons wrote in an e-mail.

Jerzewski was re-elected head of the local five weeks ago. Talks on a new union contract begin in October. The current five-year pact expires Dec. 10.