Posted on: Tuesday, October 12, 2004
Dairy staff confronts uncertainty
By Sean Hao
Advertiser Staff Writer
Like many Foremost Dairy-Hawaii workers, 57-year-old Roland Gambol figured he'd retire with the company.
Standing in the shade at Ke'ehi Lagoon beach park yesterday afternoon, Gambol and several dozen other Foremost workers tried to figure out Plan B after losing their jobs at the milk processor.
"I don't know what I'm going to do," said Gambol, one of 87 workers who lost their jobs when Foremost shut its doors yesterday, five weeks earlier than expected, claiming a lack of customers and cash. "I wanted to keep working with these guys. These are good guys," said Gambol, a Foremost driver and 30-year employee.
"I don't want to have to start all over again."
The 51-year-old dairy warned employees of plans to close Nov. 13, under state and federal laws that require 60-day layoff notices. However, after that announcement on Sept. 13, customers began seeking other sources for their dairy products, said Foremost spokeswoman Lynette Lo Tom.
Employment, which had been about 130 people this summer, had fallen to 87 people as workers left to find other jobs after the closure announcement, she said.
"It's just hard because when people know you're shutting down, it's kind of like a chain reaction," she said.
Foremost's shutdown comes about eight months after it was purchased from House Foods Corp. for an undisclosed amount by a group of investors, including Big Island dairy owner Bahman Sadeghi. Sadeghi immediately sold the land and factory at 2277 Kamehameha Highway to Newfair Investments LLC for $9 million, then leased it back.
Newfair is run by Island Holdings Investments LLC, whose officers include Colbert Matsumoto, an executive for Island Insurance Cos.
Matsumoto said the future of the property is in the hands of the current lessee Foremost.
"We're not in a position to say much more other than the property is currently leased," he said.
The Foremost business, processing equipment, fleet of trucks and the Foremost brand name are still for sale, Lo Tom said.
"Now they're concentrating on selling off whatever they can to pay off all their obligations" she said.
Foremost's sole competitor, Meadow Gold Dairies, has said it's not interested in any Foremost assets.
As for Foremost's employees, members of the company's union — the Teamsters and Allied Workers Local 996 — gathered at Ke'ehi Lagoon yesterday afternoon to hear details of a severance offer by Foremost.
Under the agreement, Foremost workers receive two days of pay for every year worked, if they waive rights to sue the company in the future.
"We're trying to make the best of a bad situation," Teamsters attorney Sean Kim told workers yesterday. "This is a bad situation."
Among other items in that deal was an assurance by Foremost that it would not resume operations as a non-union shop, Kim added. The labor union had said it was concerned the milk processor would reopen as a nonunion firm.
Still, several workers at the park yesterday remained suspicious about the company's failure just months after being sold. Foremost's new owner attributes the shutdown to equipment problems and a lack of money needed to maintain its Kalihi factory. Sadeghi has blamed House Foods for not disclosing the extent of problems when it sold Foremost to him in January — a claim House denies.
"There were years when things were a lot worse than they are now," said 26-year Foremost employee Hilda Valentine. "It's too bad because there's a lot of good workers here.
"There's no way anybody is going to hire me at 57 years old."
Foremost driver Todd Nakasone — a six-year employee —said he applied for work with Meadow Gold, but feared finding another job with comparable pay and benefits would be challenging.
"There isn't much out there," he said. "It's rough. I was going to retire over there."
Reach Sean Hao at 525-8093 or shao@honoluluadvertiser.com.
