Keep Stella D'Oro Open: No layoffs, no concessions, no closure!

Check out SEIU's action alert and blogpost on Stella D'oro here. In the meanwhile, here is some of what they have to say:

"Yesterday, Lloyd Blankfein [CEO of Goldman Sachs] said he's committed to job creation. He should tell that to the 150 Stella D'Oro workers in New York who lost their jobs when Goldman Sachs took over their company. The workers, whose tax dollars bailed out Goldman, tried to meet with Lloyd Blankfein in September. They wanted to tell him the harm he was doing to their struggling community.

He didn't listen. Maybe we can get his attention. Will you call Goldman Sachs and ask them to use the tax dollars we gave them to help the workers at Stella D'Oro?

The Stella D'Oro story is all too familiar. It's just one of many family-owned businesses sucked up by Goldman Sachs, loaded down with massive debt, and forced to either declare bankruptcy or lay off their workers to survive.

We gave Goldman Sachs $63 billion of our tax dollars so they could clean up the economic mess they created. But they've only made it worse. Tell Lloyd Blankfein to stop with the PR stunts and start helping Stella D'Oro workers and all the small businesses his company has hurt."

ABOUT THE FIGHT

On August 13, 2008, over 135 members of Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union Local 50, employed at the historic Stella D'Oro plant in the Bronx, struck because of the unreasonable and unethical concessions demanded by the company at the bargaining table. Negotiators for Stella D'Oro, now owned by an out-of-state private equity firm, Brynwood Partners, among other things, want to (1) slash wages as much as 25%, hitting working women hardest, (2) make health insurance unaffordable by imposing crushing premiums, (3) eliminate holidays, vacation and sick pay, and (4) eliminate extra pay for working Saturdays and giving up family life.

Stella D'Oro management bargained in bad faith, refusing to even consider the union's proposals and compromises. BCTGM Local 50 has represented the workers at the Bronx plant since the early 1960's, and has helped build Stella D'Oro into an American icon. Brynwood Partners acquired the company in 2006. Never before Brynwood's ownership has the Local and its membership been attacked in this way.

Solidarity and Support

Jobs with Justice

Labor Notes

Domestic

Professional Staff Congress

IBEW Local 3

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