A Last Batch at a Bakery in the Bronx (Stella D’oro)

NY Times ^ | October 6, 2009 | JIM DWYER

[neverdem]

Standing at long tables at the end of an assembly line, gowned women pack what are likely to be some of the last biscotti, fudge stars and breadsticks produced at the Stella D’oro bakery plant in the Kingsbridge section of the Bronx. The women stack 10,000 cookies a day into plastic trays.

A tiny label on the packages says the cookies were made in a union bakery. These will be collector’s items.

More than a year ago, Brynwood Partners, a private equity firm that owned Stella D’oro, opened negotiations with the union representing its bakers and packers. The owners had a list of demands. They wanted, for instance, to cut the salaries of the women packing the cookies by $1 an hour for each of the next five years. They are now making $18 an hour; at the end of the contract, they would be making $13. Other changes included the elimination of a pension plan.

These cuts were needed to keep the business going, the Brynwood negotiators said, to make pay and benefits comparable with other jobs in the Bronx.

There was one other change demanded by Brynwood: the union label on the package had to go.

“What does that have to do with money?” asked Mike Filippou, who worked as a lead mechanic at Stella D’oro for more than 14 years. “That’s just about one thing: it’s about control.”

Now the brand is being sold to Lance Snacks, and production of the cookies will be moving to a nonunion bakery in Ohio. The Stella D’oro bakery in Kingsbridge is scheduled to close within the next week or so, costing 155 jobs. It is the end of a business started by a family of Italian immigrants in the Bronx in 1932, and had a devoted following among not...

[sushiman]

$ 18 an hour to pack cookies ??? Holy sheet !

[uncitizen]

$18/hour for packing cookies into a box?!

[hsalaw]

Here’s a sad fact of life that private sector unions never ever seem to learn: the employer always has the last word, and that word is “Closed.”

[HiTech RedNeck]

Unless a gummit takeover/bailout (gag, retch) is arranged. I sure wish GM and Chrysler had had the option to say “Closed.”

[hsalaw]

I sure wish GM and Chrysler had had the option to say “Closed.”

Agreed. The result of the Obozo's kowtowing to his union buddies is that GM and Chrystler are just going to fail later rather than sooner.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Looking at the Slimes report, looks like a cat fight is going to be going on for some time between the union and Brynwood. Brynwood is alleged to have described itself as a finance company, and the NLRB ruled against it last June in a union dispute. Union might end up being able to claw some damages out of Brynwood.

[HiTech RedNeck]

And dig a deeper deficit hole in the process.

[Lancey Howard]

$18/hour for packing cookies into a box?!
$ 18 an hour to pack cookies ??? Holy sheet !

PLUS!!...
The union contract included health insurance paid entirely by the company, and generous leave that could add up to 10 weeks a year when vacation, sick days and holidays were counted.

No wonder Kraft dumped it. It wouldn't surprise me if Brynwood is a hidden subsidiary of Kraft, operating only to do unseemly "wet work" on behalf of Kraft so that Kraft doesn't have to get its hands dirty... Anyway, this sounds to me like Brynwood had to play games in order to justify the sale of the company to a non-union shop in another state where the company could possibly earn an evil profit while avoiding trouble with the NLRB.

[utherdoul]

on a good week I’m making 12 bucks an hour in my job! And people wonder why we don’t make anything in this country anymore.

[hsalaw]

Union might end up being able to claw some damages out of Brynwood.

Could be, but that will just enrich the union and won't compensate the ladies getting $18/hr, 10 weeks vacation, and fully-paid health insurance. Typical short-sighted union thuggery.

[browardchad]

The union contract included health insurance paid entirely by the company, and generous leave that could add up to 10 weeks a year when vacation, sick days and holidays were counted...

“They’re going to pay $15 million to $20 million in shutdown costs,” Mr. Filippou said. “They wouldn’t talk to any of the private equity firms that tried to make a deal. To me, that’s just spite.”

Yes, I'm sure the owners decided to lose millions out of "spite." It had nothing to do with the downturn in the economy, and the intransigence of the union. No sir.

What a shame -- Stella D'oro was a NY institution.

[HiTech RedNeck]

I’m not sure if what Brynwood sold Lance was the company per se, or just the recipes and the brand name. It will be interesting to see what Lance Stellas end up tasting like.

[HiTech RedNeck]

What a shame -- Stella D'oro was a NY institution.

It succeeded in a New York way -- and failed in a New York way.

[I see my hands]

"These will be collector’s items"

Collecting expectoration probably.

[wardaddy]

Unions killed the once thriving manufacturing belt and casued it to be the rust belt instead

now the children and grandchildren of those folks have moved down south and brought their sensibilities with them

it remains to be seen if they will learn or try to screw up all over again down here

jury is still out but the fact that Nashville proper is now probably 25% northern born plays no small part in turning us into a “progressive” city

just look at the Piedmont

however here in Williamson county we appear to have gotten the “good” yankees...now if they can just learn to appreciate why our town square soldier faces south..lol

[Covenantor]

Stella D'Oro union workers on the picket line Sunday, June 14th 2009

For more about the strike from the union perspective and detailed wage and benefit package reductions go to:

http://www.indypendent.org/2009/03/20/bronx-bakery-battle/

This was published in May of 2009.

Most revealing are the unionist comments at the tail of the article. There are are two America, Obama's version thrives in NYC. The hard core union guys arguing that the SDO workers weren't "striking hard enough"( wink, nod, the finger along side the nose)

[Snurple]

Union cookie makers? Damn.

[John Valentine]

“What does that have to do with money?” asked Mike Filippou, who worked as a lead mechanic at Stella D’oro for more than 14 years. “That’s just about one thing: it’s about control.”

They were the OWNERS. Control goes with ownership - or it used to.

I suppose these unions think that they can put owners up against the wall and they'll buckle. Sometimes, maybe they do, but sometimes they say "screw you" and take the jobs to Mexico or even Ohio, where the remaining population well remember what union intransigence can do to the employment base of a community.

[JohnG45]

I spent 40 years of my life just two blocks from the Stella D’oro bakery in the Kingsbridge section of the Bronx and will forever remember the wonderful aromas of their baking products filling the air as I walked to school each morning.