Quaker Closes St. Joseph Facility

Chicago-based Quaker Oats has announced Jan. 13 that it will close its 73-year-old St. Joseph, MO production facility as part of a companywide restructuring. As a result, more than 600 workers will be out of high-paying union jobs that were the most sought after in this solidly blue-collar town.

In this city of 72,000, whose modern economy was built on agribusiness and manufacturing, Quaker Oats jobs were considered "elite," superior to messy jobs in the meatpacking plants that flourished here until the mid-1960s.

"This was the place you wanted to get on," said Ron Snyder, a manager with 25 years at the plant. "It paid well, and they treated you well. Once you got in, you got in for life."

Jobs were passed from parent to child, from brother to cousin to sister, and provided dual incomes for married couples. By most accounts, people loved their jobs.

Quaker said that age and other factors hurt the St. Joseph plant. In September 1999, Quaker said it would cut as many as 1,200 jobs from its cereal manufacturing plants in the Midwest and East. For now, Quaker plants in Cedar Rapids, IA; Danville, IL; and Manhattan, KS appear to be spared. Less certain is the fate of plants in Shiremanstown, PA, and Peterborough, ON.

In St. Joseph, where the plant produced Cap'n Crunch, King Vitamin, oatmeal and grits, Quaker and the union are negotiating a closing date and severance package. Counselors brought in from Chicago helped workers vent emotions.

"We're keenly aware of how much the community valued Quaker Oats," company spokesman Mark Dollins said. "But the realities of delivering returns might be surprising. We're about people too. We very much value the people who worked there."

The rail line to the plant was laid in 1859, local historian and museum director Gary Chilcote said. Workers walked from squat, modest homes in Sugar Town, which sprang up around the plant.

The sheer size of the St. Joseph plant, a behemoth of red brick and white trim, made it seem indomitable. The grand dame of the city's manufacturers was a fortress against the city's economic blows.

Most recently, after the 1993 flood, St. Joseph lost 1,700 jobs and Montfort Pork, Sherwood Medical, and Lee Jeans. But the city rallied and last year created 1,500 new jobs. Expansions at Sara Lee and other businesses are creating 500 new jobs, which will help the city absorb the Quaker job losses, said Chamber of Commerce director Patt Lilly.

But the wages earned by Quaker workers will be tough to match. Many Quaker Oats workers were earning upwards of $50,000 a year because of union scale, seniority and overtime.

Edited By Scott Hegenbart