250 Workers in County Receive Layoff Notices : Jobs: Nabisco notifies Oxnard employees. Wilson Sporting Goods announces Newbury Park plant closure.
Despite improvement in the latest unemployment figures, Friday was a bleak day for more than 250 workers in Ventura County as Nabisco gave 60-day termination notices to 175 employees in Oxnard and Wilson Sporting Goods Co. announced plans to shut its Newbury Park plant.
Wilson’s 56,000-square-foot sporting goods plant, open since 1988, had employed 82 people to build stainless steel golf club heads. Company officials notified workers Friday morning that the plant would close immediately.
“Once we made the decision we decided to act swiftly,” said Frank Garrett, vice president of the Wilson Sporting Goods division.
The company decided to close the plant because it was looking to shift from manufacturing to developing golf equipment, Garrett said. Also, the demand for stainless steel clubs has dropped with the advent of more lightweight titanium clubs, he said.
Production of Wilson golf clubs will be shifted to Cast Alloys Inc., a Northridge-based company that now does the finishing work on the Wilson golf clubs.
Steve Rubenstein, president of the Conejo Valley Chamber of Commerce, said the closure was bad news for the east county, but that it would have hit much harder a few years ago when the economy was worse.
“Any closure of business in this community is hurtful,” he said. “But in light of these changes within our community it is less so than it would have been some years ago.”
Meanwhile in Oxnard, Nabisco officials Friday notified 175 full-time workers--including those employees who make the world’s supply of Grey Poupon mustard and A-1 Steak Sauce--that they had 60 days left before their jobs moved to Maryland without them.
The announcement means that the company, which sold its 3rd Street plant and its line of Ortega Mexican foods to a division of Nestle USA Inc. in September, will move its entire operations out of Oxnard by the end of January.
The Ortega foods portion of Nabisco’s operation employed about 550 seasonal workers. Nestle officials have said they have not decided whether the company would hire those employees--who have yet to be laid off by Nabisco. Company officials did not return phone calls Friday.
Nabisco had previously announced it was relocating production of Grey Poupon and A-1 Steak Sauce to the East Coast next year. Company officials characterized both moves as being based solely on business considerations.
But Teamsters Local 186, which represents the plant’s employees, contends the announcement is the latest in a series of Draconian measures intended to punish the entire work force because some spoke out against poor working conditions and had filed a lawsuit against Nabisco last year.
One employee filed retaliation charges Thursday with the state Department of Fair Employment and Housing. Other workers filed similar charges with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission two months ago. The investigation is still pending.
The original class-action lawsuit by 30 of the plant’s current and former female employees alleged they were denied adequate restroom privileges--and in a few cases had to resort to wearing diapers on the job--while men could go to the bathroom whenever they wanted.
Nabisco officials have denied the charges.
“After everything that’s happened in the past 90 days, I believe Nabisco is retaliating against the employees because they stood up for their rights,” said John Gonzales, a local Teamsters representative. “This company continues to abuse these people. We’re very irate.”
Gonzales said he is particularly upset because the workers only received verbal notice of the layoffs, and have yet to be told whether they will receive any sort of severance pay.
Caroline Fee, a spokeswoman for Nabisco, said the workers would most likely receive some form of severance package, but that details are not yet worked out.
Peter Strauss, the lawyer representing the women in the class-action suit, said he does not like the way Nabisco has responded to his inquiries for proof that the company was planning to move before the suit was filed.
He said Nabisco lawyers had promised to give him documents showing that the move had been under consideration for some time, but never did. He is threatening additional legal action against the company.
“If Nabisco wants to avert a lawsuit over this shutdown, they had better procure these records,” he said.
Teamsters officials also said they are considering legal action against Nabisco, contending the company did not give workers proper notice.
Main Unemployment Story, B4
(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)
Ventura County Jobless Rate:
Annual Rates:
1994: 7.9%
1995: 8.8%
1996: 8.8%
October, 1995: 7.4%
