The New York Pulse, November 13, 2009, Friday

The New York Pulse

November 13, 2009, Friday

The New York Pulse

Stella D’oro not the only cookie to crumble in the Bronx

By Christopher Livesay

Mike Filippou of Pelham Bay has experienced first-hand the decline of manufacturing in the Bronx.

Twice.

In October, the Stella D’oro factory closed its Kingsbridge doors for good after the owners Brynwood Partners sold the cookie bakery to North Carolina-based Lance Snacks, putting Filippou and 137 other Bronx employees out of work.


An empty truck at an empty warehouse. The Stella D'oro factory is the latest casualty in a declining Bronx manufacturing industry.
“It was like déjà-vu,” he said.

In 1996, Filippou had worked for Bronx-based cookware manufacturer Farberware for nine years before the company outsourced production to Indonesia. Filippou said the company offered him a relocation package to follow the company abroad but he declined.

As the Stella D’oro bakery moves to a Lance factory in Ohio, workers have not been offered a similar deal, adding their numbers to an already discouraging 13 percent Bronx unemployment rate that has climbed faster and higher than the other four boroughs during the current economic crisis. The overall jobless rate in New York City is just over 10 percent.

According to a September report in the New York Manufacturers Register – published by Illinois-based Manufacturers’ News – New York has lost 32,451 manufacturing jobs over the past two years amid a 7 percent spike in unemployment.

“As with the entire nation,” wrote report author Tom Dubin, “the recession continues to affect New York’s core sectors.”

Yet the trend of manufacturers leaving the city for cheaper locations elsewhere began before the current recession.

A 2006 report by the same group shows that the Bronx lost 13 plants that year alone, contributing to a loss of 35,000 manufacturing jobs across the state. The report said that while 2006 output was at a four-year high in the city, it did not translate to increased employment.

“Manufacturing companies are finding ways to increase efficiency and trim costs through technology and outsourcing,” according to the report.

Workers at the Stella D’oro bakery in Kingsbridge were on strike for one year after owners Brynwood Partners announced they would cut wages, pensions, and holiday and vacation time. In July, the court found the company guilty of unfair labor practices and ordered that all employees be reinstated under original union contracts. Thereafter, Brynwood Partners announced it was selling the bakery to Lance Snacks.

“It is unfortunate,” said Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz in a prepared statement, “that Brynwood Partners would move so quickly to close its Kingsbridge plant, simply because a labor dispute did not go its way.”

Brynwood spokeswoman Stephanie Pillersdorf cited high union wages as key to her company’s decision to sell the bakery. In a prepared statement, she said that Stella D’oro “would not have long-term viability paying workers $35 an hour in wages and benefits, and providing 10 weeks of paid time off per year.”

The new workers in Ohio will not be employed under a union contract.

During the recent housing boom, wages comparable to those of union manufacturing jobs were not hard to come by for manual labor in the city, according to Leslie Ramos, director of the Mayor’s Office of Industrial and Manufacturing Businesses. She said that “construction of luxury housing and buildings sustained a thriving workforce” prior to 2008.

Ken Margolies, Director of Organizing Programs at the Cornell School of Industrial Labor Relations, said that as recently as last year when the real estate sector tanked it was common to hear talk of a Bronx revival.

“People fantasized about the kind of gentrification you saw in Greenpoint and Williamsburg,” he said. “The words ‘NoBo’ and ‘SoBo’ were thrown around. You don’t hear that anymore.”

Margolies said that the trend of manufacturers leaving the Bronx for cheaper destinations began decades ago as it did with most of New York City, however the Bronx has not recovered from this shift nor has it substituted these industries as effectively as other boroughs.

“There’s very high unemployment as a result,” he said. “There’s still some small-scale production, some garment related stuff, there’s a cigar factory, things like that. I would be surprised if any are unionized.”

Such jobs, says Margolies, are incapable of absorbing the growing wave of unemployed workers, especially those like Mike Filippou who are accustomed to union wages and benefits.

“There’s really nothing left in the Bronx for manufacturing,” he said.

As a lead mechanic, Filippou said he earned $21 an hour plus benefits at Stella D’oro. In order to make a comparable wage, he’s looking in Queens, Long Island, and New Jersey.

“I’m divorced; I have two kids; I pay child support,” he said. “But I’m a lucky one. I’m a mechanic and I can work somewhere else. Just think about someone in his fifties who’s been making cookies all his life. That’s a skill, but you can’t take it with you to your next job.”

Geoge Khassay, 51, worked at Stella D’oro for 23 years before he was laid off in October, just two years shy of his pension. He’s looking for a new job under the same union—the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers Local 50—that would allow him to maintain his pension.

“It might take two weeks, three months, six months, even a year,” he said. “But I’m flexible. I’ll do all kinds of stuff. I’ll work while I wait.”

Khassay is also a professional musician and DJ and says he’s looking forward to spending more time with his music. He said he might have to take an additional job to make ends meet.

“I’d even work in retail,” pointing to the newly opened Gateway Center mall and the proposed retail plans at the Kingsbridge Armory, where so far workers are not guaranteed a living wage.

“Of course I’ve got two kids in college to worry about though,” he said.

“It’s going to be difficult to pay for the one in law school.”