Nearly a year after layoffs, former Oreo plant workers struggle to find their way

CHICAGO – Susana Palomo couldn't sleep for a week, torn between a dream and reality.

One of the hundreds of workers laid off last year from a Nabisco plant on Chicago's Southwest Side, where Oreos were made for more than six decades, Palomo had embarked on a bold plan to attend college and perhaps open her own small bakery. But Mondelez International, the $30 billion global parent company of Nabisco, called her back to work in December.

Palomo's dilemma: Return to the factory job and get paid? Or continue studying at the French Pastry School, where she was thriving?

"I know money is really important in life, but other things also. If you're not happy, money's not everything. … It's a struggle," said Palomo, a woman in her 50s who emigrated from Mexico with her family as a teenager.

It's been nearly a year since Mondelez laid off almost half its 1,200 manufacturing workers in Chicago, shifting the work to Mexico. More than 100 employees have been called back, but many who lost their jobs struggle to stay afloat.

The layoffs, continuing the trend of American companies exporting jobs to take advantage of cheaper materials and labor costs, prompted both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton to lambaste Mondelez's decision from the campaign trail. Since taking office, Trump has repeatedly pledged to restore U.S. manufacturing jobs lost to other countries.

But it's hard to envision a meaningful reversal of the manufacturing decline in Chicago, where $25-an-hour factory jobs with benefits have become increasingly rare. In the late 1940s, Chicago boasted almost 670,000 manufacturing jobs, according to city data. Recent estimates by university researchers put the current number at closer to 70,000.

Jobs at the Nabisco bakery, which employed more than 4,000 workers in its heyday, generally paid more than most of the other jobs in the surrounding area, and the plant employed more black and Latino workers than other facilities in the area, according to a recent analysis by the Great Cities Institute at University of Illinois Chicago.

"These are ... good-paying jobs, and not necessarily for people with high levels of educational attainment, in a part of the city that's been losing manufacturing jobs for decades," said Matt Wilson, economic development planner for the Great Cities Institute.

Since the 600 job cuts were announced in July 2015, 429 workers have received layoff notices, said Mondelez spokeswoman Laurie Guzzinati. Retirements and attrition helped offset some layoffs.

Of those 429, 120 have returned to the facility after being called back and there could be additional callbacks, Guzzinati said.

After Anthony Jackson was laid off in March, he couldn't pay the electric bill. He fell behind on child support payments for his three daughters. He had to make a hardship withdrawal from his 401(k).

"Originally, it was harsh. It was extremely harsh," said Jackson, 40, a Navy veteran who worked about five years at the plant.

His fortunes improved when he became a paid advocate for the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union, the plant's largest union.

Jackson wouldn't say how much the union pays him, although he said it's considerably less than the $26 an hour he made at Mondelez. But he believes in the cause.

Michael Smith also joined the baker union's fight. Smith, 59, had hoped to retire from the Mondelez plant but has found a calling as a voice of the union after he was laid off in March.

If recalled to the plant, Jackson said it would be a "tough decision" on whether to return. Smith said he'd happily get back to work.

After getting called back by Mondelez, Palomo returned in December — for one day.

That's all it took for her to realize she was done with factory work.

While she worked for more than 25 years in Chicago-area factories, Palomo longed for a better life for her daughters.

In August, she enrolled at the French Pastry School, where she learned to bake layered wedding cakes.

Money's tight. Her husband, Pete, also a longtime factory worker, is now the family's only source of income.

But she has some help. Because the jobs were shifted to Mexico, Palomo and others were able to apply for federal assistance for training through the Trade Adjustment Assistance for Workers program. In 2016, more than 4,900 workers in Illinois were covered by the program, up from 3,235 in '15.

Her husband and grown daughters, Ashley and LizMarie, support her decision.

"To be honest, my mom's spent her whole life sacrificing what she wants to do for what she's supposed to do," said LizMarie Palomo, 26, a DePaul University graduate who works at a marketing firm.

"Seeing her take on something so new and so different shows me that life will always have new chapters, something new to take on. I'm really, really proud."