Talk Bronx New York

Stella D’Oro, owned by the vulture private equity company Brynwood Partners, closed its Bronx, N.Y., biscuit plant and fired 136 workers. Management refused to pay the full amount of severance and other benefits to the workers although their union contract spells it out explicitly. Many of the workers have over 30 years of service.

After the workers had spent a full day baking cookies on Oct. 8, the boss called them in at 3 p.m. and said in so many words, “That’s it—you’re out.” For 15 minutes the workers chanted inside the plant, “The workers united will never be defeated!”

After cleaning out their lockers, groups of workers emerged from the plant to a crowd that cheered them for their heroic long struggle. Some went straight home, but many stayed right in front of the plant with supporters. Periodically chants would erupt.

The workers were sad, but also angry and defiant—and they showed it. The very next day at a rally at the plant more than 50 workers attended, vowing to continue their fight for their benefits. Read more..

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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..

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    Stella D’oro biscuit factory in the Bronx will close in October, its owners announced on Monday

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 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 moved elsewhere and the products would continue, the statement said. Read more..

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