03/20/09 This Is What Is Meant By A Lack Of Corporate Morality And Fairness In Greenwich

A FAMILY AFFAIR: A Stella D’oro striker (center) and her two kids march in a rally in the Bronx Jan. 31. PHOTO: SARAH SECUNDA

Bronx Bakery Battle: Workers at the Stella D’oro Cookie Factory in ...

The Indypendent

When the 136 factory workers at the Stella D’oro Biscuit Co. in the Bronx went on strike Aug. 13, they didn’t expect to be out on the street for long. Evelyn Rivera, who had only been at Stella D’oro since August 2007, recalls the reassurances she received from some of the factory’s older hands. “Maybe five weeks,” they told her.

The strike had been launched to protest, among other concessions, wage cuts of up to 26 percent demanded by Brynwood Partners, the private equity firm that purchased Stella D’oro from Kraft Foods, Inc. in 2006.

Declaring Brynwood’s terms unacceptable, the workers set up a 24-hour picket line outside the factory gates at 237th Street and Broadway that by their own account better resembled a neighborhood party than a scene of dissent.....

....The stakes abruptly became apparent when, a month into the strike, the bottom fell out of the U.S. economy and nationwide unemployment soared. As longtime Stella D’oro employee Emelia Dorsu puts it, “Right now you can’t even find a job.”....

....According to Alston, the union requested a copy of Brynwood’s financial records for an accountant to review in order to verify the company’s claims. She says that Brynwood denied union reps a copy, informing them that they could access the financial records only at company headquarters, in Greenwich, Conn., where they would be allowed to sit and take notes.

Brynwood has not responded to repeated requests by The Indypendent for comment.

Weeks of haggling followed. Once it became apparent that Brynwood would not budge on its central demands, Stella D’oro workers voted unanimously to strike.

In September, Local 50 filed an Unfair Labor Practice with the National Labor Review Board (NLRB), the federal governmental agency charged with adjudicating labor disputes. As its central grievance Local 50 cited Brynwood’s refusal to negotiate in good faith....

.....It’s a battle that Alston considers “representative of the entire country in terms of working men and women.”

“What we’re giving is an example,” says Stella D’oro striker Eddie Marrero. “You gotta hold your ground no matter what, and take pride in yourself and don’t let nobody come in here and say, ‘You don’t deserve this. You make too much for what you do.’”

“This is where you let them know: I am a human being working for a living,” Marrero says.

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