Nova Scotia food maker turns to layoffs due to shipment delays
by The Canadian Press
Oxford Frozen Foods will temporarily lay off about 160 people as it waits for rail shipment of onions
OXFORD, N.S.—Oxford Frozen Foods says it will temporarily lay off about 160 people at a food processing factory in Nova Scotia because of a delay in a shipment of onions waiting in railway cars in the Chicago area.
Corey Sigut, general manager of appetizer production at the company, says it relies on Canadian National Railway (CN) to bring onions from Oregon to its plant in Oxford, N.S.
He says the company has had disruptions for the past month in the transfer of the shipments of onions from Union Pacific cars to CN.
A spokesman for CN says there is nothing at his company that is delaying the shipment and it is ready to accept the onions at CN’s Markham Yard in Illinois.
Mark Hallman says CN is working closely with Union Pacific to speed up the shipment of several carloads of onions.
Sigut says his firm is frustrated because the two railways aren’t providing it with information during disruptions over the past month.
