More on Stella D'Oro v. Hedge Fund
Oct. 1st, 2009 12:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sub_dividedBrief history: Stella D'Oro, the Bronx-based biscuit company, was bought out by Brynwood Partners, the Connecticut-based private equity fund, which demanded that all workers take an immediate $5 an hour pay cut, later "reduced" to a $1 an hour pay cut each year for the next five years. The (unionized) workers refused and went on strike for 11 months, at which point the court found that Brynwood had engaged in unfair labor practices and ordered it to pay back wages and reinstate the workers. Yay! But Brynwood responded by announcing that they were closing the factory in the Bronx.
All this is going to be in an upcoming HBO documentary (still filming). Anyway, the latest news is that someone asked Hugo Chavez at a rally if CITGO, the Venezualen oil company, could buy Stella D'Oro and turn it into a worker's cooperative. And Chavez did show some interest (as he always does when a good story comes along). Nice plot twist for the documentarians eh? Too bad the company was already sold to Lance, Inc., who plan to relocate and cost-cut: essentially they are just buying the name, not the product.
Incidentally, when I told R this story the thing that most offended her was not the ev0lness of Hendrik J. Hartong III, Brynwood's managing partner in this case, but his incompetence. He couldn't just buy a factory that makes (a little) money and runs itself, he had to go in with ideas about typical wages and benefits, and try for a 30% return for the investors, and then pitch a fit and just dismantle the whole thing when the Union wouldn't accept his unilaterally imposed terms and conditions... and America loses a brand and 130 workers lose their jobs, just like that. I can't imagine Brynwood Partners are too pleased with him, either.
All this is going to be in an upcoming HBO documentary (still filming). Anyway, the latest news is that someone asked Hugo Chavez at a rally if CITGO, the Venezualen oil company, could buy Stella D'Oro and turn it into a worker's cooperative. And Chavez did show some interest (as he always does when a good story comes along). Nice plot twist for the documentarians eh? Too bad the company was already sold to Lance, Inc., who plan to relocate and cost-cut: essentially they are just buying the name, not the product.
Incidentally, when I told R this story the thing that most offended her was not the ev0lness of Hendrik J. Hartong III, Brynwood's managing partner in this case, but his incompetence. He couldn't just buy a factory that makes (a little) money and runs itself, he had to go in with ideas about typical wages and benefits, and try for a 30% return for the investors, and then pitch a fit and just dismantle the whole thing when the Union wouldn't accept his unilaterally imposed terms and conditions... and America loses a brand and 130 workers lose their jobs, just like that. I can't imagine Brynwood Partners are too pleased with him, either.