Fahey challenges plant closing

The owner of a downtown food factory has said it will close the plant this year and end 426 jobs - a plan that Mayor Mike Fahey immediately challenged.

Pinnacle Foods Group Inc., in a letter Wednesday to the union representing most of the plant's employees, said it will close its frozen food factory in October. The plant - which has operated under the Vlasic, Swanson and Campbell names - has been at the site near 10th Street and Capitol Avenue since the 1950s.

The letter attributed the closing to Pinnacle's March 19 merger with Aurora Foods Inc., the maker of Duncan Hines baking mixes and Lender's bagels.

Pinnacle officials did not return phone calls seeking comment Wednesday morning.

Fahey said Pinnacle agreed in 2002 to keep at least 300 jobs at the plant through the end of 2005.

"This notice - we're obviously shocked by it," Fahey said. "We're going to initiate calls to them and see if in fact they're going to abide by their agreement. If not, we're going to fight for those jobs and look for other recourses."

The City of Omaha, the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce, the Nebraska Economic Development Department and the Omaha Public Power District provided $6 million in grants in exchange for the company's promise that it would keep at least 300 jobs at the plant for three years.

"It's extremely disappointing. It's a severe hit to the labor market here," said Donna McDonnald, president of Local 271 of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union. "These were good-paying jobs with good benefits."

Greg Peterson, former city planning director who worked with Pinnacle Foods for several years to keep its operations in downtown Omaha, said the loss of jobs would be bad news for the city.

"The good news is that it's an incredible, incredible redevelopment site," he said.

In recent years, as downtown Omaha has undergone a construction boom, the frozen-dinners factory that vented steam and had industrial equipment on its roof began to look more and more out of place. It is surrounded by the Omaha Convention Center and Arena, the new Hilton Omaha hotel, and a condominium project whose units sell for up to $600,000.

In 2002, a companion downtown plant - where the first frozen TV dinner was created 50 years ago - closed and was demolished to make way for Omaha's new performing arts center. That closing eliminated nearly 600 jobs.

Pinnacle's letter said it planned to fire 122 workers by July 2, an additional 282 by Sept. 3 and the remaining 22 by Oct. 1. According to Pinnacle's letter, 379 of the employees are members of UFCW.

The Aurora merger was only the most recent change in ownership for the Omaha plant. Originally owned by Swanson, it became part of Campbell Soup Co. when Campbell bought Swanson in 1955. Campbell moved the plant into its Vlasic unit, then sold Vlasic to Pinnacle. Buyout firm Hicks, Muse, Tate and Furst and J.P. Morgan Chase and Co. have since bought and sold the company.

Since the northeast part of downtown is being redeveloped, Peterson said, industrial uses don't fit any more.

"We've worked in partnership with Pinnacle and the previous owners to reposition that business so that it would have a long life and be able to provide those employment opportunities within downtown Omaha," said Bob Peters, city planning director. "The closing of the plant at this point in time is unfortunate."

Peters said keeping the plant open has been a high priority for city leaders for many years.

For some previous downtown redevelopment projects, the cost of putting together a downtown block has ranged from $2 million to $5 million, Peters said. Removing the Pinnacle plant will be expensive, offsetting the value of the land itself.

"It may be just as costly to remove the structure as the value of the ground underneath it," he said.

In 2002, a companion downtown plant - where the first frozen TV dinner was created 50 years ago - closed and was demolished to make way for Omaha's new performing arts center.

Therein lies the answer! The City of Omaha should tax residents and build more performing arts centers.

Just think of all the artists that could be employed...before long these investments would become a veritable gold mine!

Donate Here By Secure Server

Or mail checks to
FreeRepublic , LLC
PO BOX 9771
FRESNO, CA 93794

or you can use

PayPal at Jimrob@psnw.com

STOP BY AND BUMP THE FUNDRAISER THREAD-

The City of Omaha should tax residents and build more performing arts centers.

Darn right! You don't want to see a bunch of pissed off unemployed ballerinas toeing around the streets in their tutu's looking for a fight.

Downtown Omaha is the typical inner-city boom/bust/gentrification cycle. Turn-of-the-century industrial/commercial core blighted by integration ruling when whites flee to suburbs uses public money to "renovate" by building welfare ... er, I mean, "public use" projects that drive the value of the land back up. Cronies of city elite buy up the cheap land before the renovations, sell it off after it's the nouvelle "hip" address, put the profits into Caymans accounts and move on to the next project.

Old line businesses have no place in the ultra-hip Urban Cool setting, so are shut down and turned into condos or overpriced "art" shoppes. The jobs are gone forever. But then again, working is so ... gauche.

Send them a copy of the agreement and an invoice for $6,000,000 dollars.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.