Bronx Cookie Workers Fight Buyout

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.indypendent.org/2009/07/23/workers-fight-buyout/

By Sarah Secunda
From the July 24, 2009 issue |


STEPPING UP: Longtime Stella D’oro Biscuit Co. worker Eddie Marrero (left) challenges New York City Comptroller and mayoral candidate William Thompson, Jr. (right) to keep his promise to help the workers during a press conference in the Bronx July 13. PHOTO: JOEL COOK

Striking Stella D’oro Biscuit Co. workers ended their 11-month strike July 7 after winning a sweeping judgment from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) that their employer, Brynwood Partners, had engaged in unlawful labor practices. However, the Bronx bakery workers now find themselves racing to save their jobs after the private equity firm, based in Greenwich, Conn., announced that it would close the factory by October.

While Brynwood’s ultimate course of action remains uncertain, the Stella workers and their supporters are focusing on snack food giant Lance Inc., based in Charlotte, N.C.

Mike Filippou, a shop steward with the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM) International Union Local 50, which represents the Stella D’oro workers, says the union has learned that Brynwood is in negotiations to sell the Stella D’oro brand, but not the factory, to Lance.

Lance, which has a non-union workforce of 5,000, posted sales of $825.5 million for 2008 and has a market value of $769 million as of July 14. (Lance did not respond to The Indypendent’s request for comment.) Filippou says that Local 50 has received offers from buyers who would keep the cookie plant and its 136 jobs in the Bronx, but that Brynwood Partners has refused to consider these offers.

The Stella workers and their supporters are now channeling their efforts into building the political and community support they believe is going to be necessary to force the company’s hand. The workers’ battle with Brynwood began in August 2008 when they went on strike after the private equity firm demanded that they accept pay cuts of as much as 26 percent, as well as reductions in holidays, sick days and health coverage.

FULL story at link.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

1. If the owners comply with the WARN Act, I doubt there is nothing else that can be done