Results tagged “stelladoro”

Stella D'Oro, the local makers of cookies and breadsticks that you used to be able to take almost anywhere, has been sold and is leaving its longtime home up in the Bronx. Earlier this summer, workers of the Kingsbridge cookie factory were put on a roller coaster ride when a judge ruled in their favor of their yearlong strike only to be told by owners Brynwood Partners that the court's costly decision was prompting a shutting down of the factory. Workers demanded that Brynwood sell Stella D'Oro so that operations could continue and the company complied...only to have new owners Lance Inc inform them the new jobs would be about 500 miles west in Ohio. Following the news, the union released a statement saying, "We weren't wrong in what we did. What's wrong is that the law allows companies to sell off its business in order to avoid a judgment of the law." Well, at least 75 years of baking cookies and a hardfought labor battle aren't all for naught—Lance Inc says Stella D'Oro is "a perfect fit in with the niche brand strategy that we have."

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."

Days after a judge ruled that Stella D'Oro, the baked goods company, should reinstate its striking 134 union workers in the Bronx, the company announced it would shut down its Bronx factory. Last week, the judge found that Stella D'Oro did not "bargain in good faith because it did not release its 2007 financial statement," and now the company says it can't make a profit without union concessions. The company said, "The decision to close the Bronx bakery operations has not been made in haste or without significant planning." One resident said to NY1, "Every time I would come by I would smell the aroma of the cookies, of the baking, etc." Related: Patton Oswalt riffed on the Stella D'Oro breakfast treat ads.