Olymel cutting 340 job in St. Hyacinthe in next year

Olymel workers are seen in a file photo from csn.qc.ca

Olymel is eliminating 340 jobs at its St. Hyacinthe meat processing plant.

The company has decided that as of September 2017 it will no longer debone hams at this location.

Over the next year the company and union will figure out which employees can be transferred to other jobs, possible at other locations in a 70 km radius of St. Hyacinthe.

Olymel employs about 11,000 people, 8,000 of them in Quebec, with operations in Ontario, Alberta, New Brunswick and Saskatchewan.

About one-third of Olymel's products are exported to the United States, Japon, Australia, and 65 other countries.