Posted on 05/15/2015 2:58:49 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Blue Bell knew about listeria contamination, feds say
I love Blue Bell. I hope they can pull their way out of this. But it ain't looking good.
This is a sad story. I’m not quite grasping why they have to layoff. Didn’t they just pull the bad batches from stores?
My Daughter teaches at a school which made a field trip to one of their ice cream factories. It was actually right before the first listeria infections occurred.
None of the students who were in elementary school, had any problems and the company was very nice to them. They even gave them free ice cream to take to their school mates.
I think they had to close the whole factory and they are still cleaning, they don’t know when they will reopen.
I am just learning about listeria, but from what I hear it is extremely difficult to get a production facility clean once it has been contaminated. They almost have to disassemble the whole factory and build a new one. There was some speculation recently that when Walmart mysteriously announced "plumbing problems" at a few stores and that they would be closed for six months, that this was really a listeria outbreak at those stores.
There are four factories; two in Texas, one in Oklahoma and one here in Alabama. ALL of them closed to clean them and please the feds that the ice cream is safe.
It’s really too bad, as it is my favorite ice cream, specially Blue Bell Banana Split (yum!), but I’d rather not die of Listeria, either.
“Blue Bell knew about listeria contamination, feds say”
Sad - it looks like they got some REAL LOSERS in management that thought the bugs would simply go away if they ignored them - while their bonuses piled up.
Lots of workers will pay dearly for this, and, maybe the first time in my life, I feel sorry for the workers - in this case.
Thanks. wow. Geez that sucks.
When the public forgets...sales pickup...those laid off get reemployed.
Interesting about the Walmart possibility. I just figured they were hitting back at the communist organized wage protests.
Not buying it. No company sells products that carry a massive liability.
This is administration hi-jinx...think Gibson Guitar.
It's no great mystery for me, and I had never heard of Bluebell before this event.
The fundamental cause was neglect of conditions and procedures that allowed the invasion of Listeria.
That this element of the event is not discussed is extremely significant to me.
Short description : unsanitary conditions and procedures.
That creates a HUGE task.
The reductions will be permanent. Any extra labor required will be sourced through staffing or temp agencies, at a greatly reduced hourly labor rate. This is how you reduce your overhead costs, and improve shareholder value, and this is what needs to be done to improce your bottom line.
Lots of companies sell product that carry a massive liability, step 1 is to think it won’t be that big. Especially with something like listeria which basically requires them to disassemble the factories, the cost of not shipping is extremely high.
“Not buying it.
Blue Bell admitted they knew about the outbreak in 2013.
Blue Bell was always over rated and over priced in my opinion. Their product killed people. Hope they go out of business.
Bad management I guess. What a shame for the workers.
Two dear friends of mine, a husband and wife, were just laid off from Blue Bell 3 hours ago. He was two months shy of being vested in his retirement. She quit a different job nine months ago to work with her husband at Blue Bell. They are both in their late 40’s and have three kids. Horrible time/age to get laid off!
Sorry to hear about that. That is terrible.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.