HBO Documentary Tells Workers’ Story in Stella D’oro Strike (just watched it on HBO on Demand)

[Omaha Steve]

This brought back some very bad memories for me. Every DUer should watch this. It is going on around the country over and over.


http://blog.aflcio.org/2011/07/10/hbo-documentary-tells-workers-story-in-stella-doro-strike/

by James Parks, Jul 10, 2011



The documentary “No Contract, No Cookies,” which began airing this month on HBO2, puts a very human face on what is becoming an all-too familiar and tragic story. Byrnwood, a private equity firm bought the family-owned Stella D’oro bakery, which had been a part of the Bronx community since the Depression. Many of its 136 employees, members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM) Local 50, had worked there for decades.

The new owners forced workers to strike by demanding pay cuts of as much as $5 an hour and stripped-down benefits. For 11 months, the employees, who hailed from 22 different countries, marched together in unity and solidarity.

Finally, an administrative law judge ruled in the workers’ favor and ordered all the employees reinstated. But the joyous victory was short-lived and bittersweet. Just one day after the workers came back to the job, the new owners announced they were closing the factory and moving the work to Ohio. Now, two years later, the factory stands shuttered like so many other manufacturing plants in this country.

The documentary puts faces with the numbers. “No Contract No Cookies” is all about the workers and what their experience has meant for them. In about a half hour, the film makers Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill show us what happens to communities and lives when greed trumps everything else.

Check your local listings for times the documentary will air.

[Hotler]

1. k&r Thanks Steve. n/t

[hadrons]

2. I live about a mile & a half from the Bronx factory ....

I remember the strike because during the Spring/Summer/Fall I would ride my bike every morning from my apt. at 200th Street in Manhattan to 260th Street in The Bronx (the streets along Broadway at those points are almost completely flat) and I would see the D'oro strikers almost each morning. Some of them got used to seeing me and we would wave to each other. And I also recall one morning seeing them booing and jeering a couple of scabs and/or management people entering the factory.

And the following season they weren't there at all ... now I have my answer.

[Ikonoklast]

3. I haven't eaten a Stell D'Oro product since.

That brand was literally destroyed by "Smart Businessmen".

Destroyed.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stella_D'oro

[jdadd]

4. They re-located close to me.....

Ashland Ohio,is a very conservative place. They purchased the old Archway Cookie bakery,then selectively hired back some of the former Archway employees....Ashland is Working class Republican (Teabagger) stronghold. I've not purchased their products since this all happened. I used to love Archway cookies....