Posted on 12/04/2011 7:24:02 PM PST by MamaDearest
LONGMONT -- The closing of Longmont's Butterball plant at the end of the year marks the end of a 51-year run for Longmont's turkey plant. More importantly, it means 349 people are joining the ranks of the unemployed.
One of them is Abundio Canales, 63, a Longmont resident who has operated machinery at Butterball for 19 years. Both he and his wife work at the plant, and both will start the new year looking for work.
Canales said he plans to learn English better and would like to take some computer classes, but he's concerned about his wife being able to continue to get her diabetes medication. Also, "she's very hurt from the wrist, from all of the work that she's done," he said.
In September, North Isidro Soto, 53, has worked at Butterball for 10 Carolina-based Butterball announced it was shutting down its Longmont facility at the end of the year, blaming high grain and fuel costs that had made its westernmost production plant no longer financially viable.
Butterball bought the turkey plant from ConAgra Foods in 2006, and in 2008 announced it would no longer raise and slaughter turkeys in Longmont, instead focusing on processing turkey into deli meats and other similar products. That decision led to the loss of nearly 500 jobs, both at the plant and at surrounding turkey farms.
Canales and some of his colleagues said the company's announcement to shut down the plant took them by surprise.
"It looked like they were buying new equipment -- everything was going fine," said Ernesto Herrera Ramirez, 42, who has worked in maintenance at the plant for 21 years.
He said that in the past couple of years, since the change from being a slaughterhouse to producing "value-added" turkey products, Butterball has invested in new coolers, floors, fans, ovens and other upgrades.
"For the last three years, I saw them make big changes at the plant," Ramirez said. Earlier this year, when a plant in North Carolina burned down, all of that production was brought into the Longmont plant -- a good sign from the company and a move that produced a lot of overtime for the employees, Ramirez said.
In fact, Canales said, the Longmont plant was considered the top producer of Butterball's six production plants in the U.S.
Then, "from day to night, everything changed," said Isidro Soto, 53, a 10-year veteran of the plant.
Rumors have been rampant at the plant that Butterball isn't planning on shutting down in Longmont permanently, the men said. Speaking through an interpreter, they said word has gone around since 2008 that Butterball wants to sever ties with the long-term employees at the plant -- and the extra vacation time and benefits they have earned for their tenure -- and start over with all new workers, non-union workers. Combined, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 and the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 1 represent nearly 300 of the plant's 349 employees.
The three men say they aren't convinced the rumors are true, just that they are out there. Salvadore Lopez, 65, who has worked at the plant for 11 years, said he's heard the same rumors and doesn't believe them.
"I have to look for another job," said Lopez, a machine operator, also speaking through an interpreter. "They're not going to open another plant here. They severed all their ties with the (turkey farmers)."
Lopez said that a lot of his colleagues are worried about their futures but that he's tried to take a positive attitude to the news of the closing.
"I've always felt (optimistic)," said Lopez, a trim man with black hair and a neatly trimmed mustache who does not look his age. "Within the two-week period that they advised me that they were going to close the plant, I took the attitude that this was a good opportunity. I took the idea that this is a good thing."
Agencies likely to feel pressure
Angel Gonzalez, director of Local 7's packing house division, said that when Butterball initially announced it was shutting down, it wasn't offering the workers a severance package. He said that bargaining by the union led to the workers getting four weeks of severance pay and three months of insurance coverage. The company also agreed to pay the workers holiday pay in December and to write letters of recommendation for them.
"There was no legal obligation from the company's point of view for the employer to do any of those things," Gonzalez said, adding that neither the law nor the union's contract with the company required severance in event of a shutdown.
The company also invited employees to apply for transfer to another of the company's facilities -- the closest of which is in Missouri -- but he's heard of no one expressing interest in that, Gonzalez said.
Butterball has hosted one job fair on-site and plans to do another in mid-December, the company said.
Workforce Boulder County, which is working with Butterball on the job fairs, is doing what it can to help the workers prepare for unemployment.
For example, Workforce's Tayca Doreste said, the agency is helping the workers who can't speak English learn how to apply for unemployment benefits from the state, which they will be eligible for once their severance runs out.
"When Butterball did this back in 2008, what we found was many people didn't have computer skills, and also a lot of the workers impacted were monolinguistic Spanish speakers," Doreste said.
Workforce is blocking off times in its computer labs that it will devote specifically to helping Butterball employees.
"Our plan is in December we've got about 10 scheduled and in January we'll be doing more, obviously," she said.
Gonzalez said that the typical production worker at Butterball makes $9.25 an hour to $14 per hour. That means that in many cases, the workers might not have much of a financial cushion, meaning pressure likely will be put on local nonprofits.
"In my case, my wife is not working," said Ramirez, who owns his home in Longmont. "My children depend on me and my insurance. So I'm starting to put in applications to work elsewhere."
"For me personally, I am sick -- I have diabetes," said Soto. Also a Longmont resident, he said his wife recently was laid off from her job.
"I have insurance. I get my medication. It's OK right now," Soto continued. "When they shut down the plant, and my insurance runs out, what am I going to do?"
Dr. Gregory Jaramillo, a family physician at Salud Clinic, said he has patients already who work at Butterball that he's been taking care of for years. In the months ahead he'll soon be seeing a lot more of what will now be ex-employees, he said.
"We see 15 to 20 new patients a day, so we're used to the strain," Jaramillo said. "But they won't all be new patients. They'll be old patients who now don't have any way to pay for it."
'Testing our community'
The OUR Center already is seeing record numbers of people needing assistance with food or housing in 2011, and executive director Edwina Salazar said the closing of Butterball hints toward an even tougher 2012.
"Planning is critical," Salazar said. "A lot of people go into denial when they're facing something like this, and they don't do what they can now to start making changes."
She said that in 2008, when Butterball cut close to 500 jobs, a lot of people left the Longmont area to go elsewhere to find work. She said that having that type of flexibility is good, and she also encourages people to take advantage of the services that Workforce Boulder County offers.
She said that three years ago, companies in other states -- Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota -- were sending fliers into Longmont, seeking to attract some of the laid-off Butterball workers to come there and work.
"I don't know if that will happen this time," she said.
El Comité, which also helps disadvantaged people find the resources they need for basic survival, already has started receiving visits from Butterball employees, executive director Marta Moreno said.
"A lot of those folks who work there, they are talented," she said. "Some are carpenters; some know about construction."
She echoed what Salazar said about taking advantage of the job fairs and Workforce resources, and said that El Comité will offer workshops that might be of assistance to some of the workers.
The main thing she's telling them, she said, is not to focus on losing their job but to be planning what's next.
"We're going to test our community," Moreno said. "We're going to test our city. How embracing are we, really, as a community? If our community is saying we're here for each other, and we welcome everybody, then let's walk the walk. Because today it's them -- tomorrow it could be us."
Tony Kindelspire can be reached at 303-684-5291 or at tkinde
Ooops, sorry, title should read “Closing.” Also emphasis mine.
Maybe they couldn’t convince an Imam to move to town to pray over the product.
I feel sorry for anyone losing their job, but sheesh, why did the firm only hire Spanish speaking workers instead of US English speakers.
How can you be in America for 19 years and not having learned to speak fluent English (seniors are given exemptions to my question here)?
You would have to be basically hostile to the surrounding culture to do that.
going halal didn’t save them?
You would think in 10 years or more, they would learn English language.
You would think in 10 years or more, they would learn English language.
My grandparents immigrated here from Europe and they spoke English. They were proud to be in America and loved everything about this country. I worked with a gal from Italy and her family spoke fluent English. It was considered rude to speak a foreign language around people who spoke English. IMHO it still is.
How many of those 10 to 20 yr employees are illegal?
It also looks as if the union isn't particularly interested whether their "members" are legal US residents or not.
Part of the U.S. multi-trillion$ problem
My wife makes an excellent turkey soup with carrots, potatoes, celery, garlic, etc., with acini de pepe (pasta) mixed in.
Can't help but wonder how many times Butterball was audited for immigration violations by the feds? Fines?
Selective enforcement of our nation's laws by government agencies and protecting certain groups (and agendas) at great expense to our nation, states, businesses, entities and citizens and shows blatant disrespect for the Rule of Law and those charged with enforcing it (Border Patrol Agents among them).
Yum! Sounds similar to a soup I made with turkey as well. I ask the butcher to cut the turkeys in half (usually buy a couple of them - some for the freezer) and cook half at a time since there are only two of us. It works out very well.
Illegal aliens no doubt!
I bet the governor of Colorado will force the place to stay open in some way...
Twenty years and many still don't speak a lick of English.
Not to worry pack up your warmest sombrero and head for North Dakota. They are screaming for all types of trained workmen. Also Wyoming, the “Oil Boom” is starting to heat up in Central Wyoming. In the Douglas area of Converse County they are short of every skilled workmen.
Newt wants them all to stay.
It’s interesting that you will find many Spanish speaking people in Colorado and New Mexico whose families have been US citizens for generations. My mother was one of them. Her siblings barely ever learned English and her father never did, but he was born in the USA in 1900. My mother did learn English but did NOT want us to learn Spanish.
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