Public Employee Press

Labor marchers back Stella D’oro workers

Many activists in the Sept. 12 Labor Day Parade marched with signs supporting Stella D’oro workers as the closing of their Bronx cookie plant loomed.

Local 375’s Labor and Community Unity Committee helped organize that show of solidarity by holding a multi-union meeting Aug. 31 to drum up support for the workers from the plant. The 134 workers, members of Local 50 of the Bakery, Confectionery and Tobacco Workers Union, spent 10 months on strike against pay and benefit cuts demanded by Brynwood Partners, a Connecticut firm that bought the once family-owned business.

When a federal judge ordered Brynwood to reinstate the strikers, the firm announced that it would shut the bakery and planned to reopen in Ohio.

At the Aug. 31 meeting, Local 375 President Claude Fort said the plight of the Stella D’oro employees reflects the nationwide war against union workers. Neal Frumpkin, co-chair of the DC 37 Retirees Hispanic and Solidarity Committee, which earlier this year donated $100 to the strikers, and Local 768 President Fitz Reid were among the DC 37 activists who participated in the meeting.

Participants decided to urge their locals to support the Stella D’oro workers at the parade, and some pledged to make placards and march together.