Taming the cookie monster
 

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.

- - -

It's nice when corporations are forced to follow the rules, even after
they ignore them.

Taming the cookie monster
 

HK wrote:
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.

- - -

It's nice when corporations are forced to follow the rules, even after
they ignore them.
Bush accelerated the process. Fully 2/3 of our remaining work force is
underpaid/ underemployed/ and with little or no benefits.
They are attempting to turn back American Workers to the era of Standard
Oil. The whole Globalizaation thing is aimed at one thing enlarging the
profits of a hand full of supoer rih around the world.

Wall Street's pattern for some time is to get hold of a company and
strip out the equity and sell off the rest to holding companies who then
buy crap from China or elsewhere and slap a label on it.
Cutting wages and eliminating benefits and shifting health care and
retirement benefitss to the oublic sector or letting their workers rot
after retirement has become Wall Street's method of operation for their
profits. American Workers that produced the wealth are now being
relegated to the same status afforded the slave labor of the third
world. If this pattern continues we will have a Feudalistic society here
in America to say nothing of the world. Communism is bad. Corporatism
and especially Global Corporatism is worse. Mussolini would have loved
to claim credit for what has been done to America.

Taming the cookie monster
 

It's nice when corporations are forced to follow the rules, even after
they ignore them.

Happy F'oth Day to you Krausie! How are things at home with you and
the Dr-Dr wifelet? Jus' was wondering if she had, a'hem - started,
you know, giving you a little bit again. Nothing like some fireworks
at home on the 4th, eh?