Rumor around the plant today is we've been told we're closing. Anyone else hear that? Was the WARN given or are we just counting down the days now until it is?
31 replies (most recent on top)
Looks like it wasn't lies that were being posted about Berkeley after all?
Welp.....
I can’t wait to see what the disgruntled former employee has to say after tomorrow! Last I checked we are still here and you are not. Lol
To the disgruntled former employee there are over 2,000 people viewing this thread why don’t you tell us why you post all these negative lies? What did Berkeley Farms do to you? Why are you so upset?
Still fake news. Again, you don’t know Berkeley Farms financials, you don’t work here, and nothing you’re saying makes any sense. Lol. There was never a WARN, Berkeley Farms is not losing money and yes most of the people on here are disgruntled former employees. You can go to any thread and all you see is miserable individuals bashing every single milk plant that Deans Foods owns. There are very few people like me posting comments on here that are real. So tell me, what are you going to say after a year from now when we are still here? It’s not our fault that this company didn’t work out for you. And it’s not our fault of what became of you 🧟♀️ Berkeley Farms will always be here : )
That's the point. The WARN notice wont get filed now because of that probably. Might as well wait another week and see if someone else wants to buy a plant they think they can turn around. "strong"????? Yeah losing 500K a month strong. Listen, good for you to think you're doing well. But everyone else on here knows Berkeley has lost money 3 full years strait. And a land developer doesn't have to buy it for residential. The only way someone will bid on Berkeley and keep it as a milk plant is if they can get it at a steal and get a really good contract from DFA. They would also have to get rid of that union contract as it's terrible if you hope to be able to survive. In order to overcome roughly 500K a month, the price increases to customers would have to be HUGE. They wont pay it. Business will fall to Crystal and Producers and Alta Dena will pick up as much as they can.
In all seriousness though, I hope the best for each of you/us through this auction period. Hopefully we all come out the backside with a job or get helped to find a job. With projections that unemployment could hit 20-30%, I don't wish it upon any of us to be part of that group. Hopefully whoever buys each plant cares more for its employees than Dean's has over the last decade. A lot of this was brought on by themselves in addition to the milk drinking decline. Stay safe out there.
Fake news. You don’t know Berkeley Farms financials. And your statement doesn’t even make sense? Every plant is going to be left alone until March 30th, not just Berkeley Farms. That DFA bid for 44 plants was rejected by the judge. Now every plant is up for auction. And nobody is looking at that industrial Hayward area for land development. You can’t build residential that far back. It’s only use is for warehousing. Again why do you love to post so much fake news? We’re still here and strong : )
The auction is March 3oth. They'll probably leave Berkeley alone until then and see if anyone bids on it. Whether for land or whatever. Berkeley lost over 5 million last year. 🤢
We’re still here buddy : )
If I had to guess I believe Berkeley will be included in the DFA purchase and after this consolidation the people who will be getting a WARN notice is Crystal.
That last comment must be more Fake News from the broken man. No warn notice. We still have ALL our customers. We have a lot of interest from buyers outside of DFA, as well as DFA is still interested on buying. April/May we will know if DFA chose to include us or another bidder purchased us. But we are not closing. The guy writing all these negative posts is a disgruntled former employee.
WARN notice coming soon! Corporate and Managers telling you everything is ok to use you till closing so they aren't left with staffing issues.
To the former disgruntled employee who started this fake thread. Clearly you did not read the DFA purchase agreement. And clearly you do not understand bankruptcy or restructuring. This is way above your pay grade. Berkeley Farms is going to be fine. Based on your comments on here if I didn’t know any better I would think I had to water you twice a day.
Lol. We are all laughing at you : ) What type of guy who doesnt even work here anymore takes the time to read about Berkeley Farms and post nonsense everyday. We are still here and we will continue to be here. You are pathetic. And no you were not at that bar. Lol
Let's see. DFA leaves Berkley off the list and some dillweed says nah it ok DFA will pick it up. Sorry corporate stooge not all employees are dumb.
I wouldn’t really put much faith in a sales manager’s promise. A sales manager is pretty far removed from what is going on at the corporate level.
Berkeley is not closing. I heard from my friend that the sales manager told everyone that he promised that we are ok and being picked up by dfa. So to tthe disgruntled employee take that as we heard it from a reliable source.
You got some rough news coming in the next week or so. You'd think DFA not wanting you would make you realize you're just shouting out garbage. And maybe that high pay you're so proud of is what is getting you to be laid off sometime around May. No one will buy Berkeley with how terrible that union contract is. Dean's wanted to buy crystal numerous times so they could shut Berkeley down due to how bad the contract is. They even agreed once on the purchase but hit some issues along the way and it didn't go through. Hopefully you saved some of that money because you're going to need it. That land will be a nice property for a developer or something like that. Our CEO basically said that on the last town hall. Even after you get the WARN notice you'll still be on here BS'ing that it's just disgruntled former employees. Berkeley is done man. It's no insult to you that it is. That plant has been losing money for years and the city would love to see it gone also. Best of luck to you while you "persue other opportunities" as Dean's always says.
Luckily there's a temp work office next to the plant in Hayward
Greeley will be closed before DFA would take over. Would be tough to get volume back after you've transitioned all the volume to other plants.
Other plants would likely fail inspections too. DFA or any other buyer going to have to spend a lot of money to get things up to code everywhere. Greeley just had bad luck being inspected when they did. So Greeley may still be part of the deal if DFA willing to spend the money to update the water treatment plant. May not be. Amount of money involved and the fact that many employees might have found other jobs by time DFA would take over and get things fixed might make them pull out from buying that plant. Nothing is final yet.
Reason Greeley is closing is because of the water treatment plant not being sufficient and Dean Foods/the banks not wanting to spend the money to get it up to code. If the DFA purchase happens (still a big if still), Greeley will either not be a part of the deal anymore or DFA will have to spent the money to get it up to code. It's not like that's the only money DFA (or any other buyer) will have to spend. Greeley just got inspected and caught. Could have happened at other locations just as easily.
So they are closing down Greeley because it failed inspection. That plant is on DFAs buy list. I'm sure they are going to just love buying a plant they can't use.
Told you back in Jan that dump was closing. Must still be living in denial huh???
At my plant they just post any info about the bankruptcy by the time clock that nobody reads and then run back to their offices, sit down and mope about how they are going to find another job, pay the mortgage, the car[s] and the kids college.
Chapter 11 filing did NOT count as a WARN notice.
Example of Dean Foods filing a WARN notice this month-Meadow Gold in Greeley Colorado closing:
https://bizwest.com/2020/02/18/dean-foods-to-close-meadow-gold-dairy-in-greeley-cutting-82-jobs/
That’s how we handled it at the plants I was involved in notifying, a short notice mandatory meeting.
There doesn't HAVE to be a mandatory meeting. Every employee just had to be attempted to be told in a reasonable manner. To the person who posted this: nothing yet but our drivers told many of our customers yesterday they were told it has been decided. So the customers are part of the rumors now to and are surely going to pass that up the chain.
They gave WARNing November 12th when they filed for bankruptcy
As the previous comment states, there would have been mandatory plant meeting to attend which would have announced the warn to the employees, it sounds like that didn’t happen. Also someone could walk into the plant manager’s office and ask him/her to get to the truth and bypass the rumors.
Either YOU were told or you weren't?