Abstract: Tomatoes or other articles are placed over moving cutter blades (20) in article openings of an article locator of an article slicer (10). Article pushers (24) move downwardly and have downwardly extending pusher fins for pushing the tomatoes through the cutter blades. The article pushers are carried by a movable support plate (78) between retracted positions behind the cutter blades and extended positions over the cutter blades. A pick and placer (76) is carried by the same movable support plate (78) and moves simultaneously in the same lateral directions as the article pushers, between positions over the oncoming line of tomatoes on an entrance conveyor (64) and over the cutter blades.