Last Friday, manufacturing and packaging workers at the Sweet'N Low factory in Fort Greene were called in for a company-wide meeting, and informed by Cumberland Packing Company CEO Steven Eisenstadt that all 320 factory jobs at the sugar and sweetener company's Navy Yard headquarters would be nullified by year's end.
The factory, where artificial sweeteners have been mixed since the late 1950s and where Sugar in the Raw, Stevia, and Sweet'N Low are packaged and shipped internationally, will be shut down. Tasks performed by the local workforce—two thirds of current employees live in Brooklyn, and a third in Queens—will be entirely outsourced to what Cumberland has since described as "domestic ‘co-packing’ companies," or second-party factories.
"It hit me like a brick," said Delbert Ranger, 52, on his lunch break on Tuesday.
Ranger lives in Bed-Stuy, and has worked for Cumberland for six years, operating a machine that packages Sugar in the Raw. He currently makes $9.92 an hour, which goes towards his $1,200/month rent, child support for his son, and care for his elderly mother. "Some people are still in denial that this is going to happen," he added. "They've worked 10, 20 years at the company and had hopes of retiring from this company."
Cumberland confirmed that it will keep its headquarters in Brooklyn. "This borough and this city will always be our home," said Eisenstadt in a statement. "As we move out of manufacturing, Cumberland will hone our focus on product development, marketing, distribution and sales here. Our corner of the industry has incredible competition that's changing our business model."
Cumberland received approximately $4 million in incentives from the city back in 2007, designated for renovating two of its Brooklyn Navy Yard buildings. As a stipulation of this agreement, Cumberland was required to maintain a workforce of at least 320—but only until 2011. Company headquarters are required to stay in-borough until 2020.
"Cumberland... kept the packing operations running in-house long after the scope of these incentives ended," said a company spokesperson this afternoon. "The repair work that funds paid for to keep the buildings from crumbling down and the floors from falling in will benefit whoever moves into the space next."
A source also confirmed that the Navy Yard is in the midst of a 20-year reduced rent agreement with Cumberland, although exact amounts were not disclosed. The planned outsourcing of industrial labor does not impact the rent agreement.
The Cumberland Packing Company at 2 Cumberland Street (Google Maps).
United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 2013, the union that represents the factory workers, was as surprised as its members by Friday's announcement. Union leadership has been in bargaining with Cumberland since September 30th, and says that the company gave no warning of the impending layoffs.
UFCW 2013 President Mark Carotenuto says that he hadn't yet breached economic issues in the bargaining process. According to the union, three quarters of the staff makes less than $15 per hour.
"Never once did they bring up anything around competitve pressure," said Carotenuto by phone on Tuesday. Carotenuto said that Cumberland canceled its last two negotiating meetings with the union, scheduled for late December and Thursday January 7th. "It was disturbing that before we talked dollars and cents they decided they couldn't compete," he added.
A press release put out last Friday states that Cumberland turned down "many lucrative offers" to move or sell the business to a conglomerate over the years, but decided that the time is right in 2016 because, in the company's estimation, a sufficient number of food and manufacturing jobs "have returned to Brooklyn and New York."
Mayor de Blasio announced a ten-point, $115 million plan to increase the number of industrial and manufacturing jobs in NYC last November.
At the time, NYC had 530,000 existing manufacturing and industrial jobs, making up 15.4% of the city's private sector work force. A recent study from the Center for an Urban Future found that the city gained 880 manufacturing jobs between 2011 and 2014, an increase of 1.2%. Politico points out that food manufacturing jobs saw the biggest increase, at 13.6%. However, food manufacturing has the lowest annual wages in manufacturing citywide—only $32,882.
Cumberland has also pledged to work with the City and the Navy Yard to insure that each of its employees finds a new job, and both parties today confirmed these efforts.
"Today, even as we complete the inevitable, we want to work with the union to help everyone who wants a job, find a job," said Eisenstadt in a statement.
Until the union sits down with company representatives on Wednesday, Carotenuto said that "to me, it's a lot of smoke and mirrors."
Ranger, the machine operator from Bed-Stuy, says that he might start looking for a new job before notice comes from Cumberland. As for his industry of choice, "I don't have experience in clerical work. Data processessing, word processing, I don't know anything about that," he said. "I know how to drive a truck, or drive a fork lift, and I have warehouse experience."
He added that work skills aren't the only barrier to future employment. "I'm bilingual so that's a plus for me, but a lot of my coworkers don't speak English, which is why many of them are hurting," he said. "A lot of people here are in their 50s and 60s. Where is a person who is 50 or 60 going to do? Is an employer waiting to employ you if you can't speak the language?"
Workers are rallying this afternoon outside of Cumberland Packing Company at 2 Cumberland Street.
