"New York resisting sale of Stella," Ashland Times-Gazette, 09/30/09

Three New York politicians are fighting the Lance Inc. acquisition of Stella D'oro.

U.S. Congressman Eliot Engel, D-NY, Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, D-Bronx, and New York City Councilman Oliver Koppell say plans to sell the Stella D'Oro brand and certain machinery to Charlotte-based Lance violate the terms of the Industrial and Commercial Abatement Program through which the equipment was purchased.

The politicians, in a Sept. 18 joint letter to the New York City Department of Finance, wrote, "Since Stella D'oro is now being sold to Lance Inc. with production relocating to Ohio, any and all funds provided over the last several years should be returned to taxpayers." Read more.

"Help Keep Stella D'oro Jobs in the Bronx," AFL-CIO, 9/29/09

It’s down to the wire for workers at Stella D’oro Biscuit Co. The North Carolina-based snack maker Lance Inc., wants to buy Stella D’Oro and move production from its 78-year home in the Bronx to a nonunion bakery in Ohio.

The sale will not be finalized until October. Jobs with Justice is urging all of us to take action now by signing an online petition urging Lance CEO David Singer to keep Stella D’oro and its good union jobs in the Bronx. Read more.

The International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations (IUF) today sent out this message of support for the workers at Stella D'oro:

136 members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers & Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM) were forced out on strike last year for nearly 11 months when the private equity-owned company presented a take-it-or-leave-it contract offer which would have shredded wages and benefits. From August 14, 2008, union members showed tremendous solidarity on the picket line, winning growing community, national and international support for holding the line against a predatory financial investor.

The union won a rare legal victory when the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled the company guilty of bargaining in bad faith and ordered the workers reinstated with full back pay. When they returned to work on July 6, private equity owners Brynwood Partners announced they would be closing the plant within 90 days and relocating production. And on September 8, Brynwood announced that it had reached a deal to sell Stella D'oro to Lance, Inc., a non-union North Carolina-based food manufacturer that owns snack brands such as Archway cookies - another company destroyed by private equity.

The deal will not be finalized until October. Stella D'oro has been in the Bronx for seventy years; BCTGM Local 50 has represented the workers since the 1960's. Stella and its workers have firm roots in the community. There's still time. Click on the link below to send a message to  Lance, telling them  to keep Stella D'oro in the Bronx - with a union contract!

Please click here to read more from the IUF and to send a letter to Lance, Inc. protesting their intention to move production out of the Bronx!

"Stella D'oro protestors lean on Goldman Sachs," The New York Daily News, 9/29/09

They're not going quietly.

Workers at the Stella D'Oro cookie plant in Kingsbridge picketed the Goldman Sachs building and then marched on City Hall Friday in a desperate attempt to save their jobs.

"Engel, Dinowitz, Koppell Demand City Take Back Stella D'oro Tax Breaks," Trading Markets, 9/28/09

Washington, D.C.--The new owner of Stella D'Oro should not be allowed to take machinery bought and upgraded by New York City tax dollars to a plant in Ohio Congressman Eliot Engel, Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz and Councilman Oliver Koppell said in a letter to the New York City Department of Finance.

The three also said that the City should go to court to stop the move to Ohio until the restoration of the tax money is resolved. "We feel very strongly that New York City tax payer dollars should not be outsourced to Ohio," the three said in the letter. "Since Stella D'Oro is now being sold to Lance, Inc. with production relocating to Ohio, any and all funds provided over the last several years should be returned to the (New York) taxpayers." They said that they were informed that these funds were used for the improvement of Stella D'Oro equipment that the current owner, Brynwood Partners, intends to make part of the sale to Lance Inc. Read more.

Jobs with Justice (JwJ) this morning sent out an action alert about Stella D'oro over their national e-activism list. If you're not on the list, you can see what JwJ had to say -- and can tell Lance, Inc. that you oppose their attempt to move Stella D'oro production out of the Bronx -- by clicking here!

Tune in to WBAI Radio's Building Bridges at 99.5FM on Monday night at 7PM to hear coverage of the rally this past friday from our friends Ken Nash and Mimi Rosenberg. Here's the blurb for the segment:

Stella Workers Rally vs. Goldman Sachs & Mayor Bloomberg

Anti-union Lance Inc., based in North Carolina, is poised to buy Stella D'Oro and, if they do, the Bronx plant will be shut and its unionized workers, who have waged a courageous struggle for more than a year, will lose their jobs. So, the Stella workers and their supporters brought their pleas to keep the plant in New York to Goldman Sachs, one of Lance's high-profile investors, and then to Mayor Bloomberg to intervene to keep Stella D’oro in the Bronx.

You can also listen online here.

"Mike's Non-Stella Performance," The Neighborhood Retail Alliance, 9/24/09

Errol Louis makes a strong point today in the NY Daily News about the disgraceful closing of the Stella D'oro factory in the Bronx-investment capitol firms shouldn't be allowed to violate the country's labor laws with impunity-while destroying a local business: "Hoping for a miracle, workers from the Bronx-based Stella D'Oro bakery will hold a 5 p.m. rally tomorrow at the Broad St. headquarters of Goldman Sachs in a last-ditch effort to save nearly 150 badly needed jobs. Early next month the company will lay off its entire workforce, with plans to sell the business to the North Carolina-based firm Lance, Inc. Then the plan is to move the factory - lock, stock and barrel - to Ohio. The plight of the Bronx workers illustrates what has gone wrong with our economy - and what we must do to fix it." Read more.

FORWARD WIDELY

Keep Stella D'oro in the Bronx! 

Rally with Workers and Supporters at the Stella D'oro Plant
Friday, October 2, 3PM-7PM
237th Street & Broadway

It is crunch time at Stella D'oro! Brynwood Partners, the company's private equity owners, intend to shut down the Bronx facility as early as the first days of October. They have a deal in principle with North Carolina-based manufacturing and marketing firm Lance, Inc. to buy the brand and relocate production to a non-union plant in Ashland, Ohio. But the deal still hasn't closed -- and we can stop it!

Please join the courageous women and men of Stella D'oro -- who have stood up for themselves and for the entire labor movement in New York -- as they rally to keep their plant open -- and their jobs -- this Friday, October 2nd, outside the plant gates at 237th Street and Broadway. Take the 1 train to 238th Street and walk one block south.

Update: Our leaflet for the rally can be downloaded in English here and in Spanish here. An alternative English version can be also be downloaded here. Please distribute it to friends, family, neighbors, and union brothers and sisters!

"CT owner sells Stella D'oro brand," New York Post, 9/25/09

The union workers at Stella D’oro went on strike. They marched. They sang. They appealed to teachers and nurses, congressmen and borough presidents. They won a National Labor Relations Board case.

In the end, none of that was enough to rescue Stella D’oro from its Connecticut-based owner. On Tuesday, September 8, Brynwood Partners announced the sale of the legendary cookie brand to Lance, Inc. Read more.