Sweetheart Cup lays off 75 workers

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Sweetheart Cup laid off approximately 75 workers Sept. 8 due to the loss of the company's Wendy's contract for wax cups.|ret||ret||tab|

The company had produced wax cups for Wendy's for the last 10 years.|ret||ret||tab|

"As everyone has known for a long time now, Wendy's is in the process of changing from wax cups to double-sided poly (DSP). Sweetheart was not awarded the contract for that business ... Until recently, the plan was to reduce 10 wax machines per shift in late September or early October, followed by an additional 10 in December ... Springfield is now being asked to stop production on all 20 Wendy's machines effective Sept. 8," read an Aug. 18 memo sent to all Sweetheart employees by Plant Manager Larry Eifler. Company officials had maintained hope that Wendy's new supplier would have difficulty servicing Wendy's and Wendy's would retain some of its business with Sweetheart. |ret||ret||tab|

But, the memo reads, because Wendy's is converting its cups to DSP faster than originally planned, that hope appears to no longer be a possibility, at least in the short term, and the volume reduction at Sweetheart had to occur faster than Sweetheart had anticipated. |ret||ret||tab|

Director of Human Resources Paul Post and Eifler said other Sweetheart plants in the U.S. have contracts with Wendy's for other materials, and Sweetheart does not want to jeopardize its other Wendy's contracts or the possibility of regaining the cup contract. |ret||ret||tab|

Sweetheart employs around 6,000 workers in 10 plants in the U.S., with 700 workers at the Springfield location. It is a privately held company with headquarters in Owings Mills, Md. The company reported 794 employees at the Springfield location about a year ago, and 852 in 1998. |ret||ret||tab|

Sweetheart is a union plant, and its employees are represented by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 1553.|ret||ret||tab|

"Contracts come and go in companies of this size, and you never know if a contract could change again in a month," Eifler said. "We'll keep our hopes up that the business could return."|ret||ret||tab|

Post said the average hourly wage of the laid-off workers was approximately $13 an hour and that those laid off were mostly production workers. |ret||ret||tab|

He said the laid-off employees shouldn't have a problem finding other jobs because of the area's low unemployment rate, which hovers around 2 percent.|ret||ret||tab|

"(Laid-off workers will) be entitled to recall for two years," Post said. However, he said Sweetheart officials aren't sure when the displaced workers could return to the plant.|ret||ret||tab|

Eifler said the company had not notified the Missouri Department of Economic Development regarding the layoff, and it is not required to do so. |ret||ret||tab|

The DED requires advance notice of a layoff if a company lays off 50 or more workers for longer than six months and more than 33 percent of the company's work force at a site of employment is affected, or if 500 or more employees are laid off, regardless of what percentage of the work force is affected. |ret||ret||tab|

In Sweetheart's case, the 75 laid-off workers comprise slightly more than 10 percent of the company's Springfield work force.|ret||ret||tab|

Vince Sommerville, a laid-off employee who had worked for Sweetheart for about a year, said he thinks about half of those laid off are looking for jobs with other area manufacturing employers such as Loren Cook Company. |ret||ret||tab|

He added that the other half plans to draw unemployment until the company recalls them, whenever that may be. |ret||ret||tab|

Sommerville said rumors about the impending layoff had been circulating throughout the company for about four or five months, but despite those rumors, Sweetheart had hired a new round of employees as recently as a few weeks ago.|ret||ret||tab|

"Nobody knew why they had hired new people if they were just going to lay them off ... some of the college students left when school started, and I guess they wanted to fill their spots," hesaid.|ret||ret||tab|

About 75 former Leggett & Platt employees who were displaced as a result of the company's closing its Springfield location have been assisted by the state's Rapid Response Team. |ret||ret||tab|

The team is comprised of representatives from the DED's Division of Workforce Development, the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations and the Job Council of the Ozarks. |ret||ret||tab|

A decrease in sales caused Leggett & Platt to announce the closing of its Springfield facility last month. |ret||ret||tab|

Layoffs at Legget & Platt will begin in October and will continue through the end of the year. The displaced workers include management, and clerical staff.|ret||ret||tab|

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