HBO Documentary Tells Workers’ Story in Stella D’oro Strike
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The documentary “No Contract, No Cookies,” which began airing this month on HBO2, puts a very human face on what is becoming an all-too familiar and tragic story. Byrnwood, a private equity firm bought the family-owned Stella D’oro bakery, which had been a part of the Bronx community since the Depression. Many of its 136 employees, members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM) Local 50, had worked there for decades.
The new owners forced workers to strike by demanding pay cuts of as much as $5 an hour and stripped-down benefits. For 11 months, the employees, who hailed from 22 different countries, marched together in unity and solidarity.
Finally, an administrative law judge ruled in the workers’ favor and ordered all the employees reinstated. But the joyous victory was short-lived and bittersweet. Just one day after the workers came back to the job, the new owners announced they were closing the factory and moving the work to Ohio. Now, two years later, the factory stands shuttered like so many other manufacturing plants in this country.
The documentary puts faces with the numbers. “No Contract No Cookies” is all about the workers and what their experience has meant for them. In about a half hour, the film makers Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill show us what happens to communities and lives when greed trumps everything else.
Check your local listings for times the documentary will air.
Private Equity Firms, Our New Corporate Masters?
Workers returned Tuesday to the job at Stella D’oro Biscuit Co. in the Bronx after a judge ordered the company reinstate the 136 employees who had remained strong throughout a brutal 11-month strike. But before they could even walk through the doors, they were greeted with the anti-union response by the company’s private equity firm owners, the 21st century’s mutation of the robber barons: Brynwood Partners announced it would shut down operations in October. (“Private equity firms” is the euphemism those leveraged buyout corporations adopted after leveraged buyout got a bad name in the 1980s.)
Established more than 75 years ago, Stella D’oro is a nationally known maker of specialty baked goods and until recently was a family-owned business. But a series of corporate buyouts ultimately resulted in Brynwood’s 2006 purchase of the company. And a private equity firm’s only reason for existing is to make money-lots of it. Even robber barons ultimately had to ensure they had enough workers on the job because those companies made money by making things. Not so for today’s private equity firms. Closing shop and making off with the profits is what they do.
30,000 Workers at AT&T Reject Company’s Final Offer, and More Bargaining News
Some 30,000 workers at AT&T reject what company is calling it’s final offer, and more updates from the “Bargaining Digest Weekly.” The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily, bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 900 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining@Work.
WORK STOPPAGES AND JOB ACTIONS
CWA, AT&T: Some 30,000 AT&T workers in five states, represented by the Communications Workers of America (CWA), have rejected what the company declared to be its ”best and final” offer to resolve a nearly three-month contract dispute. Union leaders repeatedly have said they are optimistic a deal can be reached before workers walk off the job.
Newspaper Workers Hold the Line on Layoffs, and More Bargaining News
Hold the press—much needed good news at a daily paper, the Long Beach Press-Telegram, and more updates here from the “Bargaining Digest Weekly.” The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily, bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 900 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining@Work.
SETTLEMENTS
TNG-CWA, Long Beach Press-Telegram: In California, newsroom and circulation workers at the Long Beach Press-Telegram, represented by The Newspaper Guild (TNG-CWA) Local 9400, reached a pact on a 30-month contract that offers layoff protection for a year and boosts pay by 2 percent after two years of bargaining.
