(Toledo, OH) J.M. Smucker is getting out of the baking business-- and it could affect a Toledo plant.
The Smucker sale to a private-equity firm has about 250 Toledo workers nervous at a plant that makes Pillsbury and Hungry Jack pancakes.
The Ohio-based food company sold those and other brands to a private equity firm for $375 million. Smucker executives say the sale will allow the company to improve its coffee, snack and pet food operations.
But union officials at the Toledo plant say their labor contract is with Smucker-- and claim the private equity firm may not honor it. The business manager for the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco, and Grain Millers union local says the new private owners have a reputation for union-busting.