Pepsi workers in Chicago are out of a job after the company announced the immediate closure of the only plant left in the city on Monday.
All Pepsi employees, including 55-year-old Daryl Smith, were informed of the closure at about 5:45 a.m. ET around the same time that Teamsters Local 727 received written notice from Pepsi attorneys. Smith noticed a "high presence of security" on site, but didn't think much of it until he was called back into work at a quarter to six.
"As I walked through the door, I asked them 'What's going on? Are they about to shut the plant down?' And she put her head down," Smith told USA TODAY on Monday. "They said ... it's an old plant. It has a lot of work that needs to be done to it, and they weren't going to put any more money into it. And as of today, the plant was shut down."
The decision to close the plant was a "difficult one," PepsiCo Beverages North America said in a statement.
"This is a more than 60-year-old building that has physical limitations," the company said. "Our top priority is to support our employees during this transition, and our commitment to serve Chicagoland remains strong ... Our plans meet applicable legal requirements and we will actively work with Union leadership on the details related to the closure."
Smith, an overnight forklift operator and union member, says he and his colleagues were "completely blindsided."
"They didn't give anyone any time to prepare for this ... If they would have told us this a month ago, people would have got another job. People could have got severance pay for the years that they have been there," Smith said. "I've been there for 29 years. We have guys that've been there for 40 years. What are we going to do for our income now?"
Pepsi plant closure is a 'slap in the face,' employee says
Teamsters Local 727 plans to "take any and all legal action" to do right by all union members following the abrupt closure of the plant, which was disclosed without union representation and violated the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, the union told USA TODAY in a statement.
A letter from Pepsi obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times says workers will receive pay and benefits until Saturday, Dec. 28, the date the facility is set to permanently close. According to the Sun-Times' copy of the letter, Pepsi says 79 employees were laid off, but a total of 150 people were employed at the facility.