Stella D’oro workers returned to work on Tuesday, although the company said it would close up shop
With passing trucks and buses honking their support, employees of the Stella D’oro Biscuit Company chanted, “The workers — united — will never be defeated,” as they filed through the gates of the factory in the Bronx on Tuesday.
Their sense of accomplishment was hard-earned: they had walked out in August and kept up a picket line through the fall, winter and spring of a deepening recession. They sued the company for unfair labor practices and prevailed in court, winning the right to return to work, proud that not one worker had broken ranks.
But then they learned, some as late as Tuesday morning, that the owner had already decided to shut the plant for good in 90 days. After striking for nearly 11 months, they stood to be out of work again in three.
The shutdown notice threw a gut-punch into a labor-management tussle that evoked a bygone era, when New York City was a hub of manufacturing and laborers had a strong hand to play in collective bargaining. And the workers’ long, unyielding battle seemed out of place when many of the city’s biggest employers are eliminating jobs in waves and pressing their remaining workers to accept pay cuts and furloughs. Read more..
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...
Email This Post