New York: Threat to close Stella D’Oro after 11-month strike

By Peter Daniels
14 July 2009

Over 130 workers at the Bronx, New York Stella D’Oro cookie factory returned to work last week after 11 months on the picket line. Their strike ended after an administrative law judge of the National Labor Relations Board ruled in their favor on an unfair labor practices charge against Brynwood Partners, a Connecticut-based private equity firm that bought the company.

The judge’s ruling does not end the workers’ struggle for their jobs, however. While the company can appeal the decision to the full NLRB, Brynwood announced on July 6 that it will close the plant completely in 90 days. As one worker told a reporter, “The decision we won, but nothing changed. We got the same problem.”

The strike began in August 2008 after provocative concession demands from the company, including annual $1 an hour wage cuts in each year of a proposed five-year contract, along with elimination of sick leave, cuts in vacation and holiday time and other attacks. Stella D’Oro had been founded in the Bronx in 1932, but was sold in the 1990s to Nabisco and later to Brynwood Partners.

The latest developments in the Stella D’Oro struggle raise crucial issues not only for these workers, but for every section of the working class facing the reality of layoffs, plant shutdowns and wage cuts.

The Stella D’Oro workers, members of Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers Local 50, remained determined over the course of 11 months, with not a single worker crossing the picket line as management hired scabs and continued production.

The union, however, followed the same scenario that has led to the systematic destruction of literally millions of jobs and the dismantling of workers’ gains over the past quarter-century. The strikers were left isolated on the picket line, with occasional demonstrations and appeals to Democratic Party politicians and a legal strategy of appealing to the state apparatus in the form of the NLRB.

The union and its “left” supporters are portraying the judge’s decision as a major victory. Workers are being told that the company is bluffing in its plans to close the plant, and that justice can be obtained from the NLRB and the Obama administration. Various misnamed “socialist” groups have joined in serving as cheerleaders, rather than telling workers the truth about the issues.

It is understandable that some workers, after months of struggle, are eager to see the judge’s ruling as a positive outcome of their fight. However, that is precisely the wrong lesson to be drawn.

The suggestion that Brynwood Partners is bluffing about closing the plant is dangerously false. Management issued a statement this past week stating, “The decision to close the Bronx bakery operations has not been made in haste or without significant planning.”

The firm plans to move operations elsewhere. It announced its plans to close the Bronx facility in compliance with federal legislation mandating a minimum of 60 days’ notice in cases of major layoffs.

The plant shutdown is meant to serve notice on every section of workers that they are lucky to have any job at all, as unemployment continues its climb to 10 percent and beyond, and that there is no alternative but to accept whatever the employers are prepared to grant in poverty wages and working conditions.

The overriding issue facing the Stella D’Oro workers as they battle the private equity firm, which specializes in acquiring and maximizing profits from what it terms “lower middle market companies,” is that their fight is political. There is no purely trade union solution, even a short-term one, under today’s conditions.

Even if the NLRB on a few occasions throws a bone to the trade union bureaucracy in the form of a favorable ruling, the workers still face employers who are committed to the most ruthless cost-cutting and exploitation in the profit interests of their investors. The state apparatus, including the Obama administration in Washington, exists in order to defend these profit interests. The only answer to the continuing onslaught on jobs, wages and benefits is a socialist program that places the decisions on jobs and production in the hands of the overwhelming majority of the population, and not a handful of multimillionaires and billionaires.

Last December the Republic Windows and Doors workers in Chicago took the first step in a counteroffensive against the corporate onslaught on the working class when they occupied their factory to demand benefits they were owed. Their action attracted worldwide attention.

The Stella D’Oro workers must be prepared to follow the example set by the Republic workers. But any plant occupation or other industrial action must be combined with a political strategy that mobilizes the whole working class in the fight to defend jobs on the basis of a socialist program of public ownership under democratic control. The parasites and speculators cannot be allowed to dictate whether workers are able to work and support their families.

This raises the urgent need for a break with the Democratic as well as the Republican parties and the building of a mass independent political movement fighting for a workers’ government. The ongoing and deepening unemployment crisis demonstrates the urgency of a socialist program of nationalization of industry under workers’ control.

Stella D’Oro workers: “It is not right if they close down—the fight should continue”

By our reporter
14 July 2009

After 11 months on strike, Stella D’Oro workers returned to their jobs last week as the result of a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruling that found the company’s owner, Brynwood Partners, a private-equity fund, guilty of unfair labor practices. In response, the financial firm announced its intention to close the plant within 90 days and move operations elsewhere. See “Stella D’Oro workers face plant shutdown.” The World Socialist Web Site spoke to workers just after their return.

Phyllis Arvanitakis is retired from Stella D’Oro. She told the WSWS, “I worked at Stella D’Oro for 20 years, from 1977 until 1997. It was good then. We worked full-time. I was a supervisor from the table and in Local 50. There were about 500 people or more working here then.

“The company was run by the Italian family when I started. First it was sold to Nabisco, then to Philip Morris, then to Kraft. Now Brynwood Partners owns it and wants to cut a dollar an hour each year of the contract, take away holiday and sick days. They brought in scabs to replace the workers. The workers were on strike for nearly a year, and now I hear Brynwood is going to close it. I think this is very bad.”

Ghanshyam Amin

Ghanshyam Amin is an electronics technician who started at the factory in 1989. He said, “The NLRB gave us a decision last week, but I think Brynwood will appeal it. What we know right now is that in 90 days Brynwood will close the factory. We have to defend ourselves. They just said they are intending to close. The union has not said anything except that we have to wait.”

Cecilia Fusco has 40 years’ service at Stella D’Oro. She said, “Now we may work for 90 days and then they may close the factory. It is not right for them to do this. People need jobs.”

Jorge Flores

Jorge Flores, with 16 years at the plant, said, “I think it is a trick. They want to scare us. They are supposed to pay us our back holidays. I think they will ask us for concessions. The trick is to ask us to cut our salaries again. We should say no to any concessions. Nobody wants to accept any tricks or pay cuts from these people; they have to treat us like people, and we are united on this.

“We are the workers who make everything in New York and around the world. I agree with and respect what the Republic Windows and Doors workers did in Chicago. They had a law there to make it legal. We have done everything legal here. If we have to do the same thing here, we should.”

Richard Bereira has worked at Stella D’Oro for 25 years. He told the WSWS, “I’m tired. They killed us in there today. Nothing works. We are hoping the factory won’t close. I think the fact that they bought the company in 2006 and now want to sell it doesn’t make sense. They want to show workers that the judge’s order doesn’t mean much.

“I think they are playing games with us. They say they don’t have the money to pay us and now they don’t have the money to keep it open. If they close, maybe they will pay severance, maybe they won’t. Maybe they will sell it to someone else in three months or six months. It is not right if they close down. The fight should continue. I think it was a pretty good idea that they had at Republic Windows and Doors in Chicago. They did a good thing.”

Alonzo Gomez

Alonzo Gomez, with 19 years seniority, said, “There is a bargaining committee which must accept any concessions that Brynwood may ask for again. The bargaining committee is not going to accept concessions even if they say we are closing in 90 days. How can you accept being told you will only have one meal to eat a day instead of three? How can they ask the working class for concessions when transportation is going up, rent is going up and the cost of credit and borrowing is going up?

“It is very hard, but we have to keep struggling. They hired scabs to work for 11 months inside the plant. They cannot produce enough. Now we are making the cookies. I had to go all over the factory to find the pieces of the machine. I am a professional. I know how to make quality cookies. They want to destroy the unions. The union has said we will wait. Maybe the union leadership protects the company too much.”

Michael Filippou is a union representative and a lead mechanic. He said, “I think our victory with the NLRB decision was one of the biggest victories in the labor movement in the past few years. I don’t believe they are going to close because I think it is a trick. They are professional liars. They are doing it to scare the members, and they do it to force us to give concessions.

“They bought Stella D’Oro for $17 million. I don’t think the math allows them to just sell it now. But if they do, occupation of the plant is a strategy we have to consider. I don’t think Brynwood has the right to close us down and throw us out of our jobs. We have lived and worked here for 60 years. We make the cookies. We have learned a lot of things in the last 11 months. If they go ahead and try to shut us down, we may have to occupy here like they did at Republic Windows and Doors in Chicago.”