Free Republic

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...

Workers at the Stella D'oro cookie factory in the Bronx were still in shock Thursday as the news sunk in that the business had been sold and was moving to Ohio. They wondered how they'd pay their rents and mortgages, how they'd find another job in today's recession and what they'd do without health insurance. "My family is going to suffer," said Evelyn Rivera, a packer at the plant for the past two years. "This is so sad. The company has been here for more than 70 years." Machine operator Juan Torres, 51, said he doesn't know if he'll have...

Workers at the Stella D'Oro plant in the Bronx rallied Saturday to fight for their jobs. They say the owners' decision to close the factory this fall is a clear case of union-busting. Stella D'Oro workers say the decision to close the factory, after eight decades, is a blatant case of retaliation for a strike they had waged for ten months, and the thought that all 138 union jobs could be eliminated is a shock to them.

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...