Landmark Industrial Bakery on Roosevelt Blvd. May Shut Down
By Robin Culverwell
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Workers at the former Kraft Foods plant on Roosevelt Boulevard got some unwelcome news yesterday that the plant's current owner, Mondelez International, is considering closing it down.
For the more than 300 workers employed at the bakery, this is bad news.
"We began discussions related to the possible closure of the Philadelphia bakery," Mondelez spokeswoman Laurie Guzzinati acknowledged to KYW Newsradio today.
When Kraft split last year, Philadelphia-based employees of Mondelez unintentionally wound up competing with bakers in Fairlawn, NJ; Richmond, Va.; and Atlanta.
John Lazar, president of Local 492 of the Bakery, Confectioners, Tobacco Workers & Grain Millers union, says this is devastating news.
"There's a lot of senior people that work up there, and it's a good-paying job with good benefits," he says. "And to hear that something like this is going to happen... I believe it to be just corporate greed."
Lazar says there was no discussion about relocating employees, but he adds that this is the first time there have been discussions about a possible closure rather than merely an announcement of one.
