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Stella D'Oro to Close in October

WNYC Newsroom

NEW YORK, NY July 07, 2009 —Last week, a judge ordered cookie maker Stella D'Oro to reinstate 134 striking workers at its factory in the Bronx. Now the company has announced it'll be shutting down the factory, in October.

The workers had been on strike since last August when their contract expired, and management asked for significant wage and benefit concessions. Joyce Alston, the head of Local 50, the union representing the workers, says her members weren't surprised, because she says, parent company Brynwood Partners never wanted to hire the workers back.

ALSTON: Something has to be done about private equity firms because if they don't get what they want they shut the business down or they'll sell the business off, and you can't maximise profit for share holders off the backs of the workers.

REPORTER: Brynwood Partners has maintained that hourly wages ranging from 18-to-22 dollars an hour and nine weeks of paid leave, made the factory unprofitable.


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