Stella D’oro Factory to Close in October

[Omaha Steve]

Source: NY times

By Jennifer 8. Lee

Last week, a federal judge ordered Stella D’oro to reinstate 134 workers after a protracted 10-month strike. This week, the company invited the workers back. It also announced that it would close the factory in October.

The decision to close Stella D’oro’s only factory, which is based in the Kingsbridge section of the Bronx, was made by Brynwood Partners, the private equity company based in Greenwich, Conn., which bought the company in 2006.

“The decision to close the Bronx bakery operations has not been made in haste or without significant planning,” a statement from the management said. Operations will be moved elsewhere and the products would continue, the statement said.


Hiroko Masuike for The New York Times The Stella D’oro biscuit factory in the Bronx will close in October, its owners announced on Monday.

The workers had gone on strike on strike last Aug. 14, two weeks after their contract had expired. The owners maintained that the hourly wages of $18 to $22 an hour and nine weeks of paid leave made the factory unprofitable. It demanded significant reductions in wages and benefits in order to move the factory to profitability.


Read more: http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/06/stella-doro-factory-to-close-in-october/?scp=1&sq=Stella%20D%E2%80%99oro&st=cse

[Loge23]

1. Brynwood Partners are in the dough-making business...

...without any of the passion and love that went into creating a great brand.
Brynwood Partners: choke on your cookies, drop dead, and leave the world a better place without your evil money-grabbing "business" decisions.
Oh, and fuck you!
As for the Bronx workers: don't let them make it to October. You know what to do.

[corpseratemedia]

2. I bought this brand many times.

No longer.

[TommyO]

3. No more Breakfast Treats, or Swiss Fudge cookies for me either

I will not support union busting like this with my dollars, they'll be hearing from me tomorrow.

[msanthrope]

4. No more Swiss Fudge Cookies for me....or Breakfast Treats.....n/t

[PittPoliSci]

5. Patton Oswalt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-oxsMl3iCA

one of his funniest bits.

[Zhade]

9. "Your twat smells like a baby's coffin!" "You fucking asshole!"

Stella D'oro Breakfast Treats - snack time any time!

[Arkana]

31. "You know, maybe if you learned how to fuck me, I wouldn't be sitting here

gnawing on this thing like it was the paperboy's dick!"

Stella D'Oro Breakfast Treats: Snacktime Anytime.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

56. I was about to post that.

:rofl:

[WriteDown]

6. Love unions...

but I can see how paying people 20$ an hour to make cookies would be problematic. Just walk down the cookie isle in any grocery store and you can see that the competition is numerous. The owners made the right call. What really needs to happen is for the Congress to enact laws that will require all similar factories to have unions and level the playing field a bit.

[Lucky Luciano]

10. ...and nine weeks vacation? What a deal that would be!

[Omaha Steve]

13. You believe them AND Rush too?

PR can say anything they want to the press. That doesn't make it true.

I can also help you find a union for your job :-)

[WriteDown]

16. Rush works for the NYT now?

Might want to try reading the article or at least traveling to a grocery store to check out the cookie selection.

[Omaha Steve]

19. Did the NYT

Read the contract or take the word of a company that was ordered to reinstate workers for illegal activity? The point is what the company says isn't all true. The Administrative Law Judge didn't believe them either.

[WriteDown]

23. Haha...

Research what the union went on strike for. There isn't much shadow conspiracy to this story. I will give you that the company is lying about why its shuttering the plant though.

[Zhade]

32. Oh, the same NYT that published Judith Miller's lies? THAT NYT?

NT!

[No Elephants]

76. Maybe the other way round.

[boppers]

21. You can help me find a union?

I'm a software developer in Oregon, moving from contract to contract.

Where is my union?

[WriteDown]

24. I've heard they hold their meetings in India...

I feel for you man.

[Omaha Steve]

25. CWA has developers with contracts

There are a few others too. Depends on what YOU want. And your in a good union state BTW.

[boppers]

28. So, do I have to find a union shop, and get hired, first?

Can't I just join?

[Omaha Steve]

50. Check with the CWA locals in your area

You would be working in a consultant office.You may or may not make $. It depends on your skills etc. But you would have benefits your not getting now.

Or as somebody else pointed out, you could get on at a consulting firm and organize it.

[bitchkitty]

46. Organize one. n/t

[No Elephants]

74. I did read about a union for independent contractors, but I don't know if it is still

in existence. Have you tried googling?

[imdjh]

37. Nine weeks is probably a very senior employee. Most people get 4+ weeks.

Your average worker gets 2 weeks vacation plus ten paid holidays, ie four weeks of paid time off.

Most companies give you three weeks vacation at five years, four weeks at ten years, five at fifteen or some plan like that. Even so, we're only up to 7 weeks.

Nine weeks only makes sense if the factory shuts down for two weeks at Christmas and a week at Thanksgiving or some other time like GM does.

[mopinko]

83. lots of food companies have to close

for top to bottom cleanings.

[Doremus]

15. You love unions, you just hate union wages. Uh-huh.

$18-20/hr. is a living wage.

Does company management make a living wage?

Did they offer to lower the salaries of all the management staff to same or lower levels as they proposed for the rank and file? If not, why not?

Why would you advocate for the slashing of blue collar wages without exploring other ways to achieve the same objective, i.e. more profits for owners/shareholders?

After all, you love the unions so. :eyes:

[WriteDown]

18. You can't pay 18-20$ an hour if your competition is paying 7$....

Also you can't give 9 weeks vacation when your competition is giving none. The solution is not to make individual companies suffer, its to require unions everywhere. It they were selling cookies LOCALLY only, then they may be able to do it, but not nationally.

There is another solution though. They could label all their packaging with UNION MADE right on the label, but Americans have proven over and over and over that they couldn't care one bit about that and will choose another non-union product if it saves them a penny.

[Doremus]

27. Why not?

Please refer to my previous questions.

The intense spotlight being focused on union wages is in many respects a red herring. There are MANY ways to improve the bottom line ... assuming the objective is reasonable profit and not profiteering.

Which do you suppose is the case with this company?

[WriteDown]

29. See post # 11 for the answer...

Mind you that 15K is equal to about 45K(NY dollars) in Detroit. The company could move there and cut their labor by a third.

[No Elephants]

77. Everything in a sentence that comes before "but" is meaningless.

As in, "I'm pro-labor but I loves me some plant closings."

[imdjh]

39. Stella D'oro fudge cookies sell for $7-$11 per pound. How much could they possibly cost?

[WriteDown]

40. No Earthly idea....

I grew up on those breakfast treats dunked in coffee though.

[imdjh]

42. I'm guessing about 35¢ per bag at most.

.


http://cuadernosfem.blogspot.com/2009/05/stella-doro-no-contract-no-cookies.html

[Abq_Sarah]

47. You have to figure

The ingredients, wages and benefits, transportation costs, advertising, insurance, licensing, state and federal compliance, taxes, capitol investments, rent, etc... If they are not selling enough, they may well cost more than $7-11.00 per pound. The overhead for most businesses is horrendous. They depend on volume of sales to turn a profit.

It's worse for many small businesses. I have to pay my SE taxes this month and I ran the numbers tonight. Because business is down this year and I don't want to lay off any employees, I've bit the bullet and taken cuts. Figuring the hours I work each week, I was a bit dismayed to find I'm not even earning the minimum wage. There are no federal laws to protect me, I get all the responsibility, all the liability and less compensation than my employees. Unless consumer spending increases, we're going to have to make some changes and it's going to be heartbreaking.

[No Elephants]

78. It's not as though each worker makes one cookie.

I hope these people find other work in their neighborhoods.

[EndersDame]

43. I garauntee you the other companies pay at least 9- 10

I believe that is the minimum people make at factories.Seven dollar is retail wage.

[No Elephants]

75. Fall '08 may have changed attitudes toward buying American. Not the election, but the

awareness of what 30 years of Republican and DLC policies did to the economy.

[Romulox]

85. No it hasn't. Start a thread in GD asking for car recommendations. QED. nt

[Celtic Merlin]

26. You've never lived in NYC, obviously.

Visit NYC. Check out via the 'net what a modest house or an apartment will cost you in NYC. Maybe someday you'll park your car in a NYC parking garage for a few hours - that'll give you a helluva shock!

Perhaps where you live, $18 to $20 per hour is really good money. That isn't the case in NYC.

Also, I'm not prepared to believe the corporation's PR. I'm betting that they're including benefits in that hourly figure. I'm betting that the people who work there are not bringing home that level of pay as raw income - with benefits above and beyond those numbers.

Finally, the people who work in that factory aren't simply rolling out dough and using cookie cutters to make cookies. They're operating and responsible for some very large and complex machinery. They're highly skilled workers, not a group of illiterates that walked in off the street last week.

If that factory hadn't been profitable back in 2006 when Brynwood Partners acquired it, they wouldn't have bought that particular location or would have closed it as soon as they bought the brand. All Brynwood is trying to do is make more money for the people at the top (themselves) by raping the wages of the folks at the bottom. They sure as HELL aren't going to reduce the price of their products - which I will never ever buy again.

Celtic Merlin
Carlinist

[WriteDown]

30. Yeah,,,

I only lived there for the majority of my life :eyes: They will move to Detroit and end up paying a 3rd of what they are currently paying for labor.

[cap]

51. how would you like to live in NYC on less than $20/hr?

even the unionized janitors make $15/hr!

The company is being evil pure and simple. How about this as a radical alternative: Maybe all cookie makers should make $20/hr! Instead of a race to compete downwards; maybe all should have to compete upwards?

If a cookie maker can make $20/hr then more highly skilled blue collar workers and college grads should make more. How about that!

[WriteDown]

54. That was my suggestion exactly.

:shrug:

[cap]

59. eom

[Deja Q]

66. You're right; leveling the playing field just like the biscuit dough...

Which also includes the cost of living as "developing nations", of which there are many, are prospering off of wages Americans just cannot live on. There's a HUGE imbalance. That's obvious.

[DainBramaged]

7. Brynwood partners are scum

http://www.brynwoodpartners.com/strategy.htm

[Historic NY]

8. glad I went on a diet.

[downindixie]

11. WOW!

800 bucks a week and 9 weeks leave.Please move to my location,I'll take 1/2 that to work for them!

[Doremus]

17. Your eagerness to undercut your fellow blue collars up north is duly noted.

Considering your moniker, I can't say I'm surprised.

Maybe we can return the favor someday. :hi:

[Celtic Merlin]

35. Have faith, Doremus - we certainly WILL return the favor. "And that right soon." [n/t]

[Dr.Phool]

20. That's why things are so fucked, down in dixie.

[cap]

52. Your fathers did the same to my grandparents during the Great Depression

the textile mills moved to the nonunionized South from Pawtucket RI, the birthplace of both the Industrial Revolution and unionization.

The effect on my family was devastating. My grandfather had been blinded in an industrial accident and couldn't work; so my grandmother was the sole support of the family. With 70% unemployment (and I don't mean 17%), she couldn't support the family, had a nervous breakdown, went catatonic and ended up in the state mental institution where she was electroshocked. The kids spent the Great Depression in foster care... a situation so dire that they refused to talk about it for the most of their lives. The most I ever heard about it from my mother was: Foster Care is Child Abuse, and from my uncle: We never played games together. Our Days Were Very Long. Basically the kids were used as slave labor. This experience was not uncommon. The Providence Journal recently had a retrospective on child abuse during the Great Depression.

It's not like those in the South got a much better deal working in those repatriated mills. In the mill towns, the factory owner was king. The deaths from cancer from breathing in the mill lint were high. Just ask John Edwards' father how great being a laborer in the mill was... he made sure he got to be a supervisor and was off the line.

We unionized and we struck-- 500,000 workers walked out in one day in the Great Textile Strike. In the next town over from where my family lived, 3,000 people were gunned down by factory goons. At least, in the North, people's lives improved. Factory workers made a decent wage, had benefits and retirement. My aunt and uncle spent their lives in factories until about 5 years ago when they were way too old to work in them (my aunt just died at age 80). She had vascular problems from being on her feet.

My family suffered for the rights of these cookie makers to get a better life. Those 3,000 people died for them. We heard the same arguments about workers making too much 60 years ago. Do we need the Great Cookie Strike to drive home the point? Do we need 3,000 more people to die from desparation?

[Deja Q]

69. Here's a website you might enjoy reading... http://timesizing.com/ 1vacatns.htm

http://timesizing.com/1vacatns.htm

I repeat:

http://timesizing.com/1vacatns.htm

I effin' repeat:

http://timesizing.com/1vacatns.htm

Incidentally:

http://timesizing.com/1vacatns.htm

I implore you to look at:

http://timesizing.com/1vacatns.htm

Do you understand now???

http://timesizing.com/1vacatns.htm

[No Elephants]

79. Gullible much?

[southernyankeebelle]

12. I for one will no longer buy their cookies - I support the unions

Hopefully all americans will wake up and support the unions.

[Highway61]

14. Unprofitable?

How much was the CEO and members of this "private equity firm" making? NOT... $18 - $22 dollars an hour! Bastards.

[Danmel]

22. This is a shame on many levels

There is very little work for those who will lose their jobs and NYC is a high cost of living area- working for 7 or 8 dollars an hour just doesn't come close to cutting it. My husbands grandparents lived rightnear the Stella Doro bakery- it is sort of a landmark.

[hayu_lol]

33. Of course the company will move south...

maybe next to all those closed contaminated peanut plants. Maybe they should move the plant to India where the people will work for food.

[2Design]

34. Like all factories - move south and then off shore -

people can not live in that area at lower wages

[No Elephants]

80. And ship back poisonous cookies. Buy at a local bakery, for heaven's sake.

[Abq_Sarah]

36. Here's my take

Based on the findings from the NLRB: http://www.nlrb.gov/shared_files/ALJ%20Decisions/2009/JD-NY-26-09.htm

Stella D'Oro claimed they were suffering heavy losses. That may well be true given today's economic climate and given that they were depending on investors to keep them floating. The reason they had their ass handed to them is because they refused to give copies of their financial documents to the union, although they did offer to allow union lawyers access to the information, just not hard copies. They claim they didn't want the union disseminating their financial information publicly because they didn't want their competitors to see it and they feared a loss in credit. If what they claim in the financials is true, the union and Stella D'oro would have ended up with an imposed contract, neither side getting all of their demands.

I suspect they'd planned to close the factory all along and were just going through the motions. You can't sustain wages and benefits if your sales have declined and the cost of your ingredients and transportation have increased. People are not willing to pay more for certain products. You can jack up the price of milk and consumers bitch about it but they still buy it all the same. "Premium" cookies are a different matter. If the price rises from $4.00 to $6.00, they'll cheap out with something else.

[WriteDown]

38. You nailed it,,,,

Well said and right to the point.

[aquart]

48. Please. NOT a "premium cookie."

[Abq_Sarah]

49. When you price them by the ounce

They come up higher than the typical grocery store cookie.

[cap]

53. How much debt was incurred in the financial maneuverings to take over the comapny

a lot of these takeovers saddle the original company with a lot of debt. Once they have the debt on the books, they undertake cost-cutting measures which typically involve worsening conditions for labor.

[mbperrin]

55. Your reply contains the actual answer. Sales have declined.

So, who's in charge of sales? Line workers? Nope. Delivery drivers? Nope. Secretaries? Nope.

Hey, it's those folks called SALESPEOPLE! If they're doing a lousy job (and if sales are down, they are!), why not fire them and get some good ones??? Now, who's in charge of hiring and firing? Why, it's MANAGEMENT! They need to get off their ass and get some real salespeople!

But instead, like 99% of all so-called managers, who are actually spill-lickers, they choose to solve a sales and management problem by firing, laying off, or cheapening the actual producers of the products which are the only reason for the company's existence!

Typical. Like the old story about the drunk on his hands and knees under a streetlight, crawling around, obviously looking for something, about midnight. Cop sees him, walks over, and says, "Hey, buddy, lose somethin'?" Drunk says, "Yeah, I lost my wallet. It's got $5,000 in it." Cop says, "Good God, that's terrible! Is there where you lost it?" Drunk says, "No, I lost it over in the dark by the loading dock there." Cop: "Why are you looking over here, then?" Drunk: "The light's so much better over here!"

Go ahead, move the plant, change the product, cheapen the ingredients, too, and then wonder why your new shitty product isn't selling even as well as your current good one. Might check and see why Jimmy Dean sued the people who bought his company afterward, and you might check current sales of that line for a good lesson on this.

Managers? Buy a valuable asset, destroy it, stick its name on a piece of shit and sell it to another sucker. That's the kind of con that passes for management these days.

Got a sales problem? Get some actual salespeople. Funny how in all those previous years, the wages didn't get in the way of great company success. Ain't that pee-kool-your?

[Deja Q]

67. Logical and well-reasoned.

[mamaleah]

41. Is there no middle ground?

If the article is correct, keep the wages where they are, don't cut them. Keep the health benefits, pensions, etc, but maybe trim the vacation. Instead of nine paid weeks, how about maybe 5?

[defendandprotect]

44. Maybe we should have a UNION CARD published on the internet . . .

and everywhere . . . which we could all fill out and carry.

Because, after all, folks . . . we are all labor.

And until we come together to fight against corporations we're not going

to get anywhere.

[defendandprotect]

45. I remember Stella D'Oro --

I lived in upper Manhattan then for a short time and Stella D'Oro also had

a restaurant there -- actually they were joined, one a fantastic pizza parlor --

a huge place with great big booths and a great menu.

And the other a fancier restaurant.

Even nicer, there was also an outdoor skating rink connected to it all.

The food was fantastic!

Really lovely.

[Cassandra]

60. Riverdale and Upper Manhattan are not the same thing.

Technically, Kingsbridge and Riverdale are not the same neighborhood, but both are part of the Bronx. I grew up in Riverdale and went to the skating rink but not to Stella d'Oro's restaurant because we preferred another Italian place nearby.

[defendandprotect]

63. Right, presumed factory was in a different location than restaurants/ice rink....

It was an easy drive from Dyckman Street --

Are any of these restaurants still in existence?

[No Elephants]

81. Riverdale is dang close.

[Cassandra]

84. Close but no cigar...

as my grandfather used to say. You still have to go over a bridge to get there.
We were in Riverdale and had a Kingsbridge phone exchange.

[dropkickpa]

57. Shit, I work in cancer research

I earn considerably less than that. My salary equals maybe $12-$13/hr, and I get 15 days per year.

[Omaha Steve]

64. I get over 9 weeks when you total ALL my time off

I get 4 weeks vacation because I have over 5 years service and over 800 hours in my sick time bank. I get 12 holidays including my birthday, and a personal holiday. I get up to a week of paid time for sick family members. I also get continuing education time off. Ad earned comp time in, and I'm over 9 weeks total easily. I only have a high school diploma. I was trained after a promotion to get my WWTO II EPA license. We currently are working under the terms of our 2006-2008 expired contract. Well worth $40 a month in dues.

Perhaps you would like to start a union at your employer?

Europeans average 2 months vacation a year in union shops.

My contract is online: https://owa.dotcomm.org/information/Human%20Resources/Union%20Contracts/Local%20251%20Contract%202006%20-%202008-455726125.EML/1_multipart_xF8FF_2_Local%20251%20Contract%20-%202006-2008.pdf/C58EA28C-18C0-4a97-9AF2-036E93DDAFB3/Local%20251%20Contract%20-%202006-2008.pdf?attach=1

OS

[closeupready]

58. I love Stella D'Oro products, but not if they are going to treat its workers like this.

No thanks.

[TexasTrue]

73. me too!

[fasttense]

61. They want to sell their crap in our US markets but they don't want to pay

our workers. What's fair and free about that? If they sell in our markets they should pay the price of fair wages. I say I'm never buying Stella D’oro crap again.

[WriteDown]

62. Hopefully...

You are not driving a Toyota, Hyundai, Honda, BMW, etc. :)

[Deja Q]

68. Yes, but where did he get it from?

Under most circumstances, I'm not going to bash an American driving a ____. I can't bash old retired people going to wal-mart either. Pennies are pennies and that means more to folks on fixed incomes. (and if companies see people going there also defaulting on their credit, are they misusing credit or did they lose their jobs... OR HAD TO TAKE A MASSIVE PAY CUT... I used caps so Stella D'oh or whatever they call themselves can try to figure it out too. Most fourth graders should be able to...)

It's not one-sided. In all things.

[Psephos]

71. So you cut slack to people who buy cheap cars, but not to people who buy cheap cookies?

This makes no sense to me.

Meanwhile, the idea of having a factory making *anything* in NYC seems about as smart as growing tomatoes and jalapenos in greenhouses in northern Alaska. If you want to pay enough to do it, you can...but WHY WOULD YOU? Just grow them in Texas, California, and Florida, where you don't have battle costs imposed by local conditions.

They can bring that cookie factory to Michigan and they'll have 500 people lined up outside the door the first day to apply for the jobs at half the rate. In real-world terms, half the pay would buy a higher standard of living in Michigan than the current pay buys in NYC. So it's a net win from the labor perspective.

What's so special about New York people over Michigan people? When I travel there, I don't see that New Yorkers have exactly filled their streets with Michigan cars. Quite the opposite.

[Deja Q]

65. D'oh. That means less money going back into the economy and more stores/firms close.

That's the way the biscuit plops.

D'oh.

[scrinmaster]

70. They'll just set up shop somewhere cheaper.

Can't blame them, either.

[flvegan]

72. "Operations will be moved elsewhere and the products would continue"

Sooo...what are we talking here, India? China? Mexico.

How many total American jobs might this be if my prediction comes true?

[No Elephants]

82. First, I don't know why anyone would buy cookies from a supermarket, when God made

local bakeries.


However, the key to the Stella D'Oro story, IMO, is this, from wiki:


"The company was acquired by Nabisco in 1992 (which became part of Kraft in 2000).<3> In 2006 Kraft sold <4> Stella D’Oro to a private investing firm, Brynwood Partners<5>, and there have been labor protests <6><7> since.

A guy who worked in one of my local stores (spices, coffee, cheeses, olives, etc.) once said to me, "I just want to make a living, not a killing."

Another local store owner told me that some of the older folk in the neighborhood just can't get to a supermarket, so he tries his best to keep prices affordable.

Both are great reasons, IMO, to patronize local stores, instead of chains or factories, especially for food, for piy sake. (The bakeries in my neighborhood charge about $8 per pound for cookies that are a lot tastier and more wholesome than the preservative and chemical laden sawdust Stlla D'Oro sells in supermarkets.) If you're going to use up your calories on sweets, they may as well be the tastiest available, especially if they are healthier (for sweets) and tastier.

On the other hand, when investors acquire food producers, they are not looking to make a living, but a killing. They will do all the corner cutting and gouging and consumer confusing they can.

BTW, corporations are buying up all the arable land in Africa they can get their hands on. So, patronize farms in your state, too. Once agribusiness gets a monopoloy on the food supply of the entire planet, the days of offshoring things like tech support, bad as they have been, may well start to look like the good old days.