Delivery drivers for Entenmann’s expect the owner of the beloved New York bakery business to make a less than sweet offer during contract negotiations set to begin next month.
Members of the Teamsters Local 802, which represents around 300 drivers in the New York area and Northern New Jersey, are bracing for tense labor talks with baking giant Grupo Bimbo, which owns the 116-year-old Entenmann’s brand.
There is growing concern that Bimbo will try to scale back delivery routes for Entenmann’s union drivers, allowing it to hire less expensive drivers to serve drug and convenience stores, union sources said.
One veteran Brooklyn driver, who gets paid largely on commissions, said that would leave him with only supermarkets and inflict a huge financial hit on his roughly $100,000 annual salary.
“I’m not going backwards,” he said, adding that many of his fellow drivers would vote against any such deal.
The Teamsters contract with Mexico’s Bimbo, which also owns Thomas’ English muffins and Stroehmann bread, expired more than a year ago, and the last extension runs out in June.
The local Teamsters in upstate New York and Connecticut are also working without an Entenmann’s contract, said a source.
Entenmann’s and the drivers are headed back to the bargaining table April 1, Teamsters Local 802 President Richard Sheehan told The Post.
Sheehan declined to get into specifics about the upcoming negotiations beyond saying, “There’s all sorts of crap out there.”
“I think we’ll reach a deal,” he added. “I’ve never had a strike in 12 years.”
Bimbo declined comment.
Despite assurances, Entenmann’s drivers have good reason to be nervous.
In 2012, Hostess Brands, the maker of Twinkies, Ding Dongs and other snack cakes, filed for bankruptcy and was eventually liquidated after a crippling strike by its bakery unions. Some 18,000 workers lost their jobs.
Private-equity firm Apollo Global Management bought the Hostess snacks business last year but has rehired few Hostess Teamsters drivers.
“After the Hostess collapse, the industry really got weakened across the country,” said a source close to the Teamsters.
Since then, Bimbo has negotiated wage and benefit cuts with its Thomas and Stroehmann’s drivers.
Last year, Stroehmann workers agreed to a small rollback in commissions in exchange for delivering new Beefsteak Rye and Sara Lee products — a decision some drivers rue.
“The problem is they did a poor job in rolling those products out,” said the source close to the Teamsters.
Although Entenmann’s has been bought and sold several times since William Entenmann put down roots in Bay Shore, Long Island, the former family-run company still has a reputation for relatively high wages.
That was the case even after Entenmann’s stopped making many products at its Bay Shore bakery, where Frank Sinatra had a standing weekly order for its coffee crumb cake.
“The Entenmann’s drivers don’t want to give up their pay, and they know once they get into negotiations it will be a lot worse,” the source said.