Burin fish plant closing

More than 100people are facing unemploymentfollowingHigh Liner Foods' announcement that it willclose itsfish processing plant in Burin, Newfoundland.

The company said in a news releaseThursdaythat the closuresin Burinandatanother of its plants in Massachusetts are happening because of "overcapacity at several plants and the acquisition of a more modern plant in Virginia."

The company said the Burin plantonce considered a state-of-the-art facility that produced products for McDonald'srestaurantsis scheduled to close by the end of December.

Its release said the Burin plant employs 121 full-time employees.

A product development office in St. John's is also slated to close at the end of 2012.

"It's a disappointing announcement and devestating for the people of Burin and surrounding communities," said Food, Fish and Allied Workers union president Earle McCurdy."That's a plant with more than 50 years of history going down the drain."

This closurecomes a day afterQuinlan'sannouncedthe shuttering of its crab processing plantin Black Tickle, Labrador.And it's less than six months after twoOcean Choice International processing plantsin Marystown and Port Union were closed as well.

McCurdy said the Burin situation issimilar, but different than the other plant closures.

"In this particular case, this is globalization at work. It's a multinational company and they had a five-year agreement to operate the plant in Burin and now that the five years is up, so is their interest in Burin," he said.

McCurdy said it appears unlikely that the Burin plant will reopen.

"There is certainly no grounds for optimism here for the moment," he said.