Buffett says he doesn’t like swinging the ax

Warren Buffett seems to be having a crisis of conscience.

The folksy billionaire boss of Berkshire Hathaway, who has long traded on a squeaky-clean image, told shareholders at the company’s annual meeting in Omaha, Neb., on Saturday that he doesn’t like seeing so many workers lose their jobs.

To some, the remark sounded like a veiled reference to 3G Capital — the Brazilian company known for extreme cost-cutting and firings — and Buffett’s co-investor in H.J. Heinz, which the pair bought in 2013.

Buffett and 3G merged Heinz with Kraft Food Group in 2015, and soon after, the pink slips began pouring in. About 2,500 employees, or 5 percent of the company’s staff, were axed.

Last year, Kraft Heinz eliminated another 1,000 jobs, and in March another 200 positions were slashed at the company’s headquarters in Chicago and in Canada. In total, Kraft Heinz expects to get rid of 5,150 workers.

“Change is painful for a lot of people, and I would rather spend my days not doing that sort of thing,” Buffett said this weekend. “But I think it is absolutely essential to America that we become more productive.”

Buffett said he preferred buying companies that are already efficient and that 3G is not alone in trying to cut costs at companies that may be less efficient.

“The 3G people do it very fast, and they’re very good at making a business productive with fewer people,” he said. “But we have been doing that in every industry.”

Some Berkshire Hathaway investors were concerned when Buffett originally teamed up with 3G, questioning whether it the partnership jibed with his “benevolent billionaire” image.