WILSON: Pfeiffer Foods closing

Business

September 10, 2009

By Joyce Miles The Niagara Gazette Thu Sep 10, 2009, 04:58 PM EDT

Pfeiffer Foods will cease local operations before Thanksgiving.

So a representative of the salad-dressing maker’s parent company, T. Marzetti, informed 156 employees early Thursday.

Work will be phased out at the Young Street plant beginning next month and will cease altogether on Nov. 20.

“As a result of ongoing review of manufacturing capacity, production requirements and management of its operations to best serve customer needs, the company has decided to cease operations ...,” an Ohio-based T. Marzetti company spokesman said.

It’s a surprising twist for a plant that appeared to have rebounded from a closure threat 2 1/2 years ago, according to Michael Devereaux, business agent for Local 802, Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union, which represents about 140 Pfeiffer employees.

In early 2007, Pfeiffer laid off about about one-third of its Wilson workforce, sparking concerns a shutdown was looming. Since then, Devereaux said, employment gradually returned almost to pre-2007 levels; and in the past year the factory had added new production lines and products.

“It’s kind of a shock, really,” he said. “We thought we could keep it going.”

The Wilson plant makes and packages salad dressings mainly for sale at grocery stores, while other Pfeiffer plants are geared to restaurant supply. The retail side is suffering in the current recession, Devereaux said employees were told.

People losing their jobs are mechanics, mixers, stackers, line operators, machine operators, warehouse, quality control and office workers and managers. They’re residents of nearly every community in northern/central Niagara County, from Newfane and Barker to Youngstown and Lockport. The average hourly wage for union workers exceeds $14. Many of them have 20 or more years in on the job, but according to Devereaux they’re too young to consider retirement.

“A lot of people will have a hard time finding new jobs for the wages they’ve been making,” he said. “Where are 140 people going to find jobs? It’s very sad.”

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