{"id":4244,"date":"2011-05-13T11:15:57","date_gmt":"2011-05-13T15:15:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/?p=4244"},"modified":"2011-06-01T09:00:49","modified_gmt":"2011-06-01T13:00:49","slug":"the-north-lawrence-dairy-has-found-a-buyer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2011\/05\/13\/the-north-lawrence-dairy-has-found-a-buyer\/","title":{"rendered":"The North Lawrence Dairy has found a buyer!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Laid-off<\/a>

Keith McDonald was laid off after 27 years at the dairy--maybe he'll get his job back?<\/p><\/div>\n

The reporting I did for my story last week on the North Lawrence Dairy closure<\/a><\/p>\n

left me worried\u2014about the 132 laid-off workers, the local community, and the dairy farmers who\u2019d face higher costs and potentially lower milk prices as one more processing plant disappeared.<\/p>\n

So when I read this morning in the Daily Courier-Observer that the Buffalo-based Upstate Niagara Cooperative has officially bought the plant, I was slightly overwhelmed with relief.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll know more as time goes on, but here\u2019s what we know so far: Yesterday, the president of Teamsters Local 687, the union that represents the plant\u2019s workers, told the Courier-Observer that Upstate Niagara had bought the plant. Brian Hammond said the company plans to continue to make yogurt at the plant (it was formerly the production site of Breyer\u2019s Yogurt); and that they\u2019re hoping to ramp production back up by early August. When I spoke to Hammond this morning he said at least 25 workers will be called back.<\/p>\n

Upstate Niagara\u2019s spokeswoman, Eva Balasz, wasn\u2019t available when the Courier-Observer called or when I called this morning, but I\u2019ll be keeping on that to get the company\u2019s take.<\/p>\n

There have been many rumors about a buyer for the plant since Healthy Food Holdings, Inc., announced in January they\u2019d be shutting it down\u2014but no one was \u201cofficially\u201d interested until earlier this week when Upstate Niagara revealed they were eyeing the plant.<\/p>\n

Now, here\u2019s what we don\u2019t know: At capacity, the plant can accommodate 200 workers, and more than 100 have been laid off in the recent closure. It\u2019s not at all clear how many of the former Breyer\u2019s employees\u2014many of whom have been working at the plant for decades\u2014will, ultimately, be rehired.<\/p>\n

Upstate Niagara may hire fewer employees, or they may make new hires. I\u2019m not quite sure what the labor implications are of the latter possibility, but I\u2019ll be looking into it when the hiring process starts up.<\/p>\n

Whew. Very, very good news. We watchfully wait to know more, and we\u2019ll have more on this Monday on the Eight O\u2019Clock Hour.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The reporting I did for my story last week on the North Lawrence Dairy closure […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[10],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4244"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/75"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4244\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}