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The move by Stella D'oro to close its Bronx bakery after a judge ordered its striking union workers reinstated is raising questions about the strength of unions in today's economy. With tough times all around, it seems unions are facing uphill battles to get public support. A NY Times story today on the strike's aftermath includes an interview with CUNY history professor Joshua B. Freeman, who notes, "A lot of people are hurting right now, and sometimes you look at someone else and they have a job and they’re resisting making a concession and you think, ‘These people seem to be sitting pretty, what are they complaining about?’" Indeed, the Stella D'oro strikers had a hard time even getting noticed—as the Daily News observes today, "news media virtually ignored the story of this largely immigrant workforce. In a town that prides itself as the heart of organized labor, the other unions were AWOL." While unions may be suffering in the economic climate, the workers appear to be bearing the brunt of this harsher labor environment. Stella D'oro worker Richard Pererira, 51, sums it up for the Times this way: "I feel cheated...All these years we worked so hard, and now they want to shut us down. That’s horrible."
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They wouldn't of had to shut you down if there was an agreement on concessions.
Agreeing to pay CUTS every year for the next FIVE years, along with reductions in vacation and sick leave, along with $1.50 an hour kicked toward your benefits (further reducing your already cut pay) isn't conceding to demands, it's being totally fucking raped by management.
The workers made $18-$23 an hour. Let's average that at $20.
$20 * 40 hours * 52 weeks = $40K a year. That's not a lot of money in this city. You can argue that "anybody" could've made the cookies, but then why do we as a society accept that people make 3X less at jobs like Best Buy? People need to make enough to survive.
I live down the street from the factory, and daily I saw a "strike" that included Corona bottles and trash strewn across their barricaded area. The strike usually consisted of no more than 10 employees at a time, who would barbecue on small grills and drink cocktails while standing outside the factory.
I felt for the guys until I saw that their "protest" was more an excuse to drink in public, and when I saw what they were fighting over, I lost any compassion I once had.
It's so simple: you agree to all of the concessions but only for one year. That puts the company on the defensive while reserving your right to renegotiate fairly soon. 'All or nothing' usually gets you the latter.
Have you ever tried to ask questions of the workers at Best Buy? They're so incompetent that they're worth only 1/3 of this. Maybe instead of asking why BB employees are paid so much less, the question should be why unskilled laborers should be worth so much more.
Your calculations fail to take into account the costs to the company of the benefits. Especially the 9 weeks of vacation. That instantly drops productivity by more than 1/6th.
There couldn't be a fair agreement on concessions if the company wouldn't even disclose financial information. I think it's pretty clear Brynwood Partners is loyal only to a specific profit margin. Stella D'oro - Since 1923 - Even back then unions were fighting for the right to strike and here we are today - after decades of erosion of manufacturing jobs while soulless corporations take the easy way out. This effects us all.
Al Franken sponsoring the Free Choice Act today gives me a little hope about the bigger picture. Also great stuff like what ROCNY is doing to try to get restaurants to adhere to fair labor practices: http://tinyurl.com/kp6m8g They said many restaurants don't even know labor laws.
Or Retail Action Project's work like the Scoop NYC event tonight at 5:30 pm. protesting withheld overtime pay, etc. http://www.retailactionproject.org/ Free Ice Cream for particpants!
yet another sad example of how unions have out-priced themselves. lesson: quit with the entitled union-worker act, and negotiate with management during hard times or else you're going the way of the dodo...and nobody will care.
Unions benefit Lazy slackers, that's it.
Says the douche bag who has time to comment on blogs during the work day.
LOLZ
Right on!
Let's go back to the late 19th century when monopolists had their workforce in near-slavery conditions!
Screw workers!
Three cheers for rich billionaires!
or we can stay in the 21st century...where you don't leave the company, they leave you!
Union busting and transmigration of business overseas is what got us into this mess and it's because American corporations don't want to have to take into account the cost of living, healthcare, the eight our workday, overtime, or environmental damage. Labor laws guarantee you overtime pay, a minimum wage, an eight hour work day, etc. This is whats at stake - This is what you take for granted that was brought to you by the noble actions of people just like the Stella D'oro workers.
The deregulation of credit - and the previous erosion of the unions (which led to difficulty obtaining wage increases) is what got us into the consumer bubble that just popped.
We need integrity in business practices. And you can fight this battle at home and this battle is being fought overseas as well by people who are enslaved by our consumerism. We need to be educated about what we're buying - we dont see past the label - anymore than we see that the derailment of unions in this country is what allowed these corporations to begin functioning like this in the first place.
AMEN!
So the workers strike for a year and when they were working had 9 weeks of vacation time. Seems they are easily replaceable.
Clearly, they weren't needed. Good for Stella D'Oro.
Awesome breadsticks.
I certainly noticed this strike -- because my favorite Christmas cookies of all time, Pfeffernuesse, never showed up in the store last Christmas thanks to this mess. I'm not expecting to see them this year either. Thanks for ruining another fond childhood memory, the whole bunch of you.
Those were discontinued a few years back when Kraft sold the company.
The workers should also not have gotten unemployment benefits since they chose to strike.
Stella workers need to stay strong! The labor community needs to jump in today and give them their full support; better late than never.
For those you sympathetic towards business, you must be those who will profit from lay-offs. For others, choose your side correctly.
The Unions have ruined another company. No one is mentioning that fact that Stella D'Oro was flushed down the toilet by Kraft precisely because its cost structure was not conducive to growth. They weren't willing to put up with the broader publicity of a strike so they just dumped it and made it someone else's problem.
Look, Best Buy might not be a fair wage and Stella might have been too fair.. But why not just have a higher minimum wage - you can't tell me that Stella workers deserve 3x the pay and benefits that other low-skilled workers are getting in this economy.