As Nabisco Ships 600 Jobs Out of Chicago to Mexico, Maybe It’s Time To Give Up Oreos

[Sherman A1]

http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/18259/oreos-union-busting

I may have to give up one of my longest-standing indulgences: the dunking of an Oreo cookie in cold milk (whole is preferred). I don’t do this lightly, as I have been dunking those deliciously wicked rounds of chocolate and what I choose to believe is cream since I’ve been three.

Why give them up? Because this week, Irene Rosenfeld, the head of Mondolez (the food conglomerate based in Illinois that has Nabisco in its portfolio), a woman touted for breaking the glass ceiling upon becoming the head of Kraft Foods and then its spin off, announced that rather than invest $130 million in modernizing the plant in Chicago, where Oreos have been lovingly produced for the past 100 years, she will instead move the jobs to a new factory in Mexico. The result: a loss of 600 well-paying and community-sustaining jobs on Chicago’s Southwest Side.

Is giving up Oreos a foolish and futile gesture? Of course, I know that other Chicago-born companies have made similar moves. I, like many Chicagoans felt a loss when Frango Mints were no longer hand made on the top floor of Marshall Field’s—and felt worse when Marshall Field’s ceased to exist at all. I was saddened when Klaus Suchard chose to take Brach candy production from Chicago, and in so doing ended Chicago’s title as candy capital of the world. I even regretted the loss of the city’s steel mills and stockyards, despite the cleaner air that their exodus brought.

But this seems different. Perhaps it was reading the May stories of Rosenfeld’s report to shareholders in which she touted the upward trajectory of the company’s profits through cutting back on procurement and customer service and her plans to make it even more profitable by a restructuring that would realize a gain of $1.5 billion for stockholders.

[AllFieldsRequired]

1. Sounds good to me, not healthy anyway.

I wish there was a way to punish companies who do this with taxation, but we actually do the reverse.

[TheCowsCameHome]

2. Galletas Oreo?

Nah, not the same.

[WDIM]

3. boycott sounds good to me.

Nabisco just lost another customer.

[Person 2713]

4. This sucks...S W side could use the jobs and revenue from rebuilding

[Gidney N Cloyd]

5. I had no idea they were made in Chicago.

When I think "Chicago cookies" I think Maurice Lenell. They're probably not made here anymore, either.

[ruffburr]

6. Oh well-

Those things taste like diabetes in a wafer sandwich of sugar, in other words, SHIT

[Ed Suspicious]

7. Odd to me that it is such a popular product that nobody would be caught dead eating.

[bvf]

9. An observation worthy of Yogi Berra!

They were my one indulgence since I went on SNAP, and I just yesterday bought my first pack in months.

Well, the deed is done. I'll savor these as long as they hold out--no more.

[tomm2thumbs]

8. When concerned mothers realize their kids cookies are manufactured in Mexico, they might stop buying

Maybe time to get the word out....

[MADem]

10. Most Oreos for US consumption are made in Richmond, VA.

http://www.foodworldnews.com/articles/25547/20150708/oreos-now-has-a-key-lime-pie-flavor-with-graham-cracker-cookies.htm

According to one commenter at the OP-provided link, the plant in Chicago was having issues with three unions. That could be the real reason they are bailing out.

Does anyone from Chicago have any insight into this?

[Auggie]

11. Oreos are wasted calories. I gave those things up decades ago.

[Brickbat]

12. I'll stop buying them and will write them a letter.