Update on Interstate!
Daily bread running out
Longtime bakery workers struggle with looming closures
Pia Sarkar, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 5, 2005
The 75-year-old Wonder Bread and Hostess Bakery in San Francisco's Potrero Hill neighborhood sits off of Bryant Street amid the roar of freeway traffic overhead. Every week, the 175,000-square-foot plant produces 437,500 loaves of bread, 155,000 boxes of doughnuts and 120,000 boxes of Ho-Ho snack cakes.
Gusts of wind carry a strong aroma from the bakery, mixing the scents of morning toast with diesel fuel escaping from idling delivery trucks. The bakery's silos are painted with the familiar red, blue and yellow dots on Wonder Bread packages.
Soon these sights and smells will be a thing of the past. Interstate Bakeries of Kansas City, Mo., which owns the Wonder Bread and Hostess Bakery, along with the Parisian Bakery in the Bayview neighborhood, has decided to shut both plants as part of its efforts to reorganize after filing for bankruptcy in September.
The company has already shuttered bakeries in Miami; New Bedford, Mass.; Florence, S.C.; and Charlotte, N.C. San Francisco alone will lose 650 jobs when the two bakeries close in August. Most recently, Interstate Bakeries announced plans to consolidate its Southern California sales operations and cut an additional 350 jobs. All told, it will eliminate 3,900 jobs nationwide.
"These are efforts to right the ship," said Jason Booth, a spokesman for Interstate Bakeries, which still operates 47 bakeries throughout the country. "Hopefully, it will protect jobs in the future."
Steve Anderson, a forklift operator for the Wonder Bread and Hostess Bakery, never thought he would have to look for a job again. But now, he has no choice. "I'm very disappointed," said Anderson, 49, who has worked at the bakery for almost 21 years. "I expected to retire from here."
The closure of both bakeries marks a steady decline of blue-collar jobs in San Francisco. Of the city's 950,000 jobs, less than 15 percent -- or about 129,000 workers -- are in industrial sectors, according to Jesse Blout, director of economic and workforce development for Mayor Gavin Newsom.
Blout said that although Interstate's decision to shut down its San Francisco facilities is more indicative of the company's health than anything else, it will still have a lasting impact on the city.
"San Francisco has seen a significant net loss of blue-collar jobs," he said.
Workers in Potrero Hill and Bayview started worrying about their jobs when Interstate Bakeries filed for bankruptcy and cited declining sales, excess industry capacity, and rising employee health care and pension costs as reasons.
"I understand why they're shutting the plant down," Anderson said. "I don't like it, but I understand it."
Elvis Asuncion, 37, perched on the edge of a curb along the Potrero Hill bakery's parking lot one recent afternoon, puffing on a cigarette. "My union is going to help me look for a job," said Asuncion, a stationary engineer at Wonder Bread for the past five years.
Some of his co-workers, however, are not so fortunate. "I see people who are upset, frustrated," Asuncion said. "These are the people who in a year were going to retire. This screws up their retirement. It's hard to get a job when you're just bakers."
Lourdes Atengco, 56, falls in the upset-and-frustrated category. She has worked at the bakery for 23 years, operating machines that lift Ho-Ho snack cakes and load them into boxes.
"I just had 1 1/2 more years to go" before retiring, Atengco said.
All her years of work earned her five weeks of vacation and a wage rate of almost $20 an hour. Atengco said if she looked for another job at a bakery, her wages would fall to a starting rate of $8.50 an hour. She would also see her vacation time slashed.
"I was excited about my retirement, but now I have to start all over again," said Atengco, who said she woke up at 3 a.m. with nightmares after she first heard the news of the layoffs. "After working so long, of course you're excited about retirement. Why didn't they wait two more years before shutting down?"
Atengco's husband works for Wonder Bread, and he also will lose his job when the bakery closes on Aug. 19. "One of us must work because of the medical insurance," she said.
Beyond her financial situation, though, Atengco also feels a tug of nostalgia for the job she has held for more than two decades. "This is my second home," she said. "I feel so comfortable with what I've been doing for 23 years."
The Parisian Bakery on Evans Avenue will shut down after 51 years. It is the only facility in the country that produces Parisian brand products.
The 35,000-square-foot building is painted in the colors of the French flag. An adjoining bakery outlet store sells a feast of junk food: Crumb Donettes, Suzy Qs, Zingers, fruit pies, Snowballs, Twinkies and Hostess Cupcakes. The bakery produces 217,460 loaves of bread and 71,540 rolls each week.
Alonso Garcia, 36, is a loading supervisor for Parisian Bakery, where he has worked for 11 years. He takes a philosophical approach to his impending job loss.
"We're just going to have to look for another job," said Garcia, who supports a family of two children. "There comes a point where there's nothing you can do. This is not the end of the world. There should be other jobs. It's just a matter of looking."
Anderson, the forklift operator at the Wonder Bread and Hostess Bakery, worries about his prospects, especially given the fact that he'll be among 650 unemployed bakery workers who will be looking for jobs at the same time. He also acknowledges that his interview skills have gotten a little rusty.
"It's been over 20 years since I looked for a job," Anderson said. "When I started this job, I was younger and in better shape. You always hear they don't like to hire older people, but I haven't dealt with it yet."
Anderson has not yet begun to look for another job. "I don't have plans for the future," he said. "I'm just going to work here until they kick me out on the last day."
E-mail Pia Sarkar at psarkar@sfchronicle.com.
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