Silly Unions

[Guns4Fun]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/07/ny.../07cookie.html

I guess they won - HA HA



After Inviting Workers Back, a Cookie Factory Plans to Shut Down

Published: July 6, 2009
About 130 bakery workers who have been on strike since August are going back to making Stella D’oro cookies in the Bronx on Tuesday — but the return may be bittersweet.

Along with invitations to resume their old jobs, the workers also received notice that the plant’s owner planned to shut it down permanently in October. The owner, Brynwood Partners, a private investment firm in Greenwich, Conn., said that it could not afford to continue operating the bakery without significant concessions from its unionized work force.

The workers refused to accept the pay cuts and changes in benefits that the owners had demanded and began picketing 11 months ago. But last week, a federal administrative law judge ruled that Stella D’oro, which Brynwood bought from Kraft Foods in 2006, had to reinstate the striking workers and pay the wages they had lost since May 6.

Company officials said that they believed the judge’s decision was flawed and that they planned to appeal it. But in the meantime, they dismissed the replacement workers who had operated the bakery during the strike and prepared for the return of the original workers, who are members of Local 50 of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers.

In a statement released on Monday afternoon, Stella D’oro said the bakery was not profitable and would not be without significant changes to its existing wage scale, which paid $18 to $22 an hour to the most skilled workers.

“By refusing to compromise and insisting on maintaining a high labor cost structure, the union leadership has ensured that the jobs that they were trying to protect would eventually disappear from the Bronx forever,” the statement said.

The company said it planned to continue producing cookies, breakfast treats and breadsticks, but it did not indicate where. Outside the dormant bakery on Monday afternoon, Stella D’oro’s chief operating officer, Daniel J. Myers, said, “It’s certainly sad all around for everyone involved.”

Louie Nikolaidis, a lawyer for the union, said he was not surprised by the shutdown notice because the company is owned by a hedge fund that is “in the business of making a certain rate of return for their investors.” He said the union hoped that Brynwood would sell the plant to a company that would keep it running.

On Monday, the unionized workers received calls telling them about a celebratory rally on Tuesday morning before they were scheduled to return to their mixers and ovens. But some of them had not heard that their victory might prove to be Pyrrhic.

“Oh, God, I knew they were up to something,” said John Capalbo, a cookie maker who was patching the roof of his house in Morris Park when he learned of the planned shutdown. “Everybody’s all happy for me going back in tomorrow morning. But I had a bad feeling because I don’t think they want us back.”

Mr. Capalbo, who said his nickname was Johnny Angel Wings because he turned dough into cookies shaped like the wings of an angel, has worked in the Stella D’oro bakery since 1979, when he was 22. “I was there more than my house,” he said. “It’s a sad thing.”

Sara Rodriguez, 41, a single mother of two who lives two blocks from the bakery, said she was proud of the result of the workers’ long holdout and was not ready to accept that the shutdown was certain.

“We still have a victory because we feel like we did what we had to do and we stuck to it,” said Ms. Rodriguez, a supervisor in the packing department. “What we were fighting for was to get our jobs back. It would break so many people’s hearts.”

Mathew R. Warren contributed reporting.

[fingers80002]

Yep, them unions are really looking out for the worker..........

[Dredly]

This is my favorite part

“We still have a victory because we feel like we did what we had to do and we stuck to it,” said Ms. Rodriguez, a supervisor in the packing department. “What we were fighting for was to get our jobs back. It would break so many people’s hearts.”

congrats, you fucked yourselves because you were being greedy bastards and forced yourselves out of the market... just like unions EVERYWHERE

[IV_Warrior]

This is my favorite part



congrats, you fucked yourselves because you were being greedy bastards and forced yourselves out of the market... just like unions EVERYWHERE

Yeah, that was my favorite part, too. How's that "Hope and Change" working for ya now........

[TXDMERC73]

This is my favorite part



congrats, you fucked yourselves because you were being greedy bastards and forced yourselves out of the market... just like unions EVERYWHERE

i agree with you! there are people willing to work for half of what it cost to pay them ,hell even a mexican would work for 3 times less. thats one of the reasons alot of companies are shipping all the work out of this country cuz its getting too greedy and everyone is wanting brand new cars every 2 or 3 years and expensive homes , this is what is ruining America and putting us very deep in debt.

[ALS]

I remember back around 85-86 Bell Telephone or Bell of Pa what ever it was back then were on strike over .15 per hour wage increase. My district manager and I were headed for lunch and he stopped to talk to the strikers.

He asked why they were striking and found out it was over a 15 cents wage increase and they had been on strike for 5 to 6 weeks.

He looked at the women he was talking to and asked her what she was being paid per hour. I can't remember what her base wage was but lets say it was$8.00 per hour. He looked at her and said if the phone company gives you the .15 cent raise you figure you won right. She agreed, then he told her it would going to take her and the rest of the strikers at least five years to make back the money they had lost going out on strike.

She looked at us like a deer in the headlights. He said if you don't believe me get a calculator and figure it out yourself. We just walked away and went to lunch.

[andrewjs18]

LOVE IT!!!!!

[mjfletcher]

i agree with you! there are people willing to work for half of what it cost to pay them ,hell even a mexican would work for 3 times less. thats one of the reasons alot of companies are shipping all the work out of this country cuz its getting too greedy and everyone is wanting brand new cars every 2 or 3 years and expensive homes , this is what is ruining America and putting us very deep in debt.

But we're entitled to three honest days pay for each half an honest days work we do!!!!!!!

[Guns4Fun]

The part that wasn't covered in this article was the fact that not only were their wages high but they got 9 weeks of paid time off too. I'm looking to see what their medical bennies were also.

[ehidle]

I'm just waiting for The Messiah to intervene and tell the company they have to stay open and keep the workers employed. Not to worry though, the government will just print up some money to pay them with and help the company break even, so long as the people who run the company don't make more than minimum wage.