Stella D'oro is gone

On Thursday, October 8, the Stella D'oro factory was taken from the Bronx.  The brand, logo, and machinery will go to a location in Ohio where unions and organized labor will not impinge on the profits of the new owners and their investors.  Lance, Inc. and their silent partners at Goldman Sachs have left 136 workers without jobs and a factory, opened in 1932, empty.

The Stella D'oro workers, sister unions, and supporters of their 11-month struggle gave all they had to keep their jobs and keep a small cookie factory operating in the Bronx.

Many place much of the blame at Mayor Bloomberg's indifference at best and complicity with Lance at worst.  At what was to be the last Stella D'oro press conference at City Hall before getting word of the closing, Council Member Tony Avella said that “This points out how disgraceful the new owners are, how disgraceful it is that Mayor Bloomberg and the City of New York are allowing this to happen without showing even the littlest respect for the workers here. Much less the fact that tax payer dollars went into buy the machinery which is now going to be moved to Ohio.”

We wish the Stella D'oro workers well during this difficult time for them and their families, but we thank them for their courage and inspiration and reminder that we must stand together to prevent this from happening again. 

 On the steps of City Hall     Photo: Thomas Good / NLN