Progresso plant in Vineland to shut at the end of summer 2017

The dreaded - but not so unexpected - news for 370 Progresso plant workers in Vineland arrived in a statement from General Mills Inc. on Monday.

"General Mills has reached a final decision to close its manufacturing facility in Vineland, New Jersey," the statement said.

The company said the facility will close by the first quarter of General Mills' fiscal year 2018. That fiscal quarter coincides with the end of summer 2017.

A previous company announcement left open the possibility that closure was a "tentative" option. Monday's announcement left no doubt: The closure will happen next year.

On July 21, the company announced a tentative decision to close its Vineland facility, subject to negotiation with union officials, as a way to streamline operations and solve what it described as "excess soup capacity" in its North American supply chain.

General Mills said that "those negotiations are now complete" and that the company "will begin the review of necessary processes to transition production to other U.S. facilities."

During meetings with the company, union leaders said members came up with about $4 million in cuts. But they weren't willing to agree to about $20.4 million in cost savings that General Mills had sought to potentially save the plant.

Those talks occurred over the last two weeks.

"We never really had the opportunity to put a package together that the company would take seriously" to keep the plant open, said Brian String, president of United Food & Commercial Workers Local 152. "The company had already made up its mind when it made the announcement [on July 21] that this was permanent."

Union leaders said General Mills wanted to shift operations in Vineland to the company's plant in Hannibal, Mo.

"This was never about labor costs, but their desire to cut soup capacity, and they were going to find a way to do it," String said.

General Mills said it will provide severance and transition benefits to all affected employees.

New Jersey State Sen. Jeff Van Drew (D., Cape May), who met with union officials, state and county politicians, and company officials to reach a compromise to keep the plant open, issued a swift statement after Monday's announcement.

"This is such devastating news. We really tried to work with the company to come up with a solution that would keep the facility operating, including meeting personally with officials while in Chicago in recent weeks," said Van Drew, whose district includes Vineland. "We hope to work with the company's real estate division - which according to General Mills coordinates with local Realtors, as well as state, county and local government - to find a business to locate at that site.

"We know that it is not in the company's interest to maintain a vacant building and pay property taxes on the site, and they have expressed their intent in trying to find a business to occupy it. My Assembly colleagues and I are also committed to doing all we can to work with local officials to attract a new company so that we can maintain jobs at that location."

Cumberland County has among the highest poverty, unemployment, teen pregnancy, and infant mortality rates in the state. Replacing a facility such as the Progresso plant presents a challenge.

"But," Van Drew said, "we are not going to give up."

Many Progresso employees have been with Progresso for decades - showing up daily for their shifts at the facility at 500 W. Elmer Rd. Progresso has had a plant in Vineland since the 1940s.

Even more bitter for them, they say, is that the July 21 announcement by General Mills to target the plant for closure came just two months after UFCW Local 152 ratified a four-year contract.

String said the union had negotiated good severance and pension packages for those willing to work through the end of summer 2017.

He said that of the 370 affected workers, 270 are union members.

"We will be holding job fairs with other unionized employers in South Jersey within the next 30 days," String said. "We will do all we can to find jobs for our members.

"We had hoped to keep the iconic company in Vineland, where it started, but this was strictly a business decision by General Mills," he said. "We never had a chance."

sparmley@phillynews.com

215-854-4184@SuzParmley