The Stella D’Oro Biscuit Company factory in the Bronx, where 134 workers on strike since last August have been replaced, must reinstate the workers and pay them wages going back to May, a federal administrative law judge has ruled.
For the last few days I have been highlighting union victories taking place, tipping my hat to workers who stand up for their rights no matter how long, hard or intense that stand up might be. Today I want to share a story out of NYC where Stella D'Oro Cookies are made.
Many of us in or around the union movement stopped eating their cookies in last August -- when their work force went on strike, at least I chose to not buy their products. Today, as I get ready for a BBQ, I might just get a few boxes ... why? See below for a NY Times article announcing the workers' victory in their strike.
Help me congratulate these brave workers for standing up with a collective voice and staying strong while they waited for word on when they would be reinstated and given their back pay.
NY Times
By SEWELL CHAN
The Stella D’Oro Biscuit Company factory in the Bronx, where 134 workers on strike since last August have been replaced, must reinstate the workers and pay them wages going back to May, a federal administrative law judge has ruled.
The 134 workers, members of Local 50 of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers, went on strike on Aug. 14, two weeks after their contract had expired.
Most of the workers at the factory, at 184 West 237th Street in Kingsbridge, are paid $18 to $23 an hour, according to the union’s lawyer, Louie Nikolaidis. The union and the company could not reach an agreement over a new contract. Stella D’Oro demanded a $5-an-hour wage reduction for certain workers, along with cuts in pension and heath care benefits, Mr. Nikolaidis said.
A lawyer for Stella D’Oro — which started as a family company and was later owned by Nabisco and then Kraft Foods before being bought by Brynwood Partners, a private equity firm, in 2006 — did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
In a 32-page ruling on Tuesday, Steven Davis, an administrative law judge with the National Labor Relations Board in Washington, found that the company had improperly refused to bargain with the union by declining to give the union a copy of its 2007 audited financial statement.
The company declared an impasse on Aug. 27, 2008, nearly two weeks after the strike started, though legal conditions for doing so had not been met, the judge found. And when the union made an unconditional offer to return to work on May 6 of this year, the factory illegally refused, Judge Davis found. He ordered Stella D’Oro to pay the workers, with interest, going back to May.
The company may appeal the ruling to the full National Labor Relations Board in Washington.
Most of the workers have been living on unemployment benefits or benefits from a union strike fund. "That’s one of the remarkable things about the strike, that the 134 people went on strike and not a single person has crossed the picket line," Mr. Nikolaidis said. He said the workers hired to replace the strikers would most likely be dismissed when the union members were reinstated.