Campbell to Cut 70 Jobs in NJ

When you think about the Campbell soup company you may picture a lot of things. You might think of the familiar red and white cans that the company packages its products in. You might think about the soup you like to have when you are sick, or the kind that you mother gave you as a child. No matter what you think of the odds are good that you do not picture a pink slip, but you might, if you were one of the 70 people that the company is planning to get rid of.

Earlier this week the company made an announcement that they are cutting about 70 workers from the offices that the company maintains in Cherry Hill, NJ. The company does not have a set date at the current moment, but are likely to happen in the next 10 months. This is more than enough to qualify as the WARN notice period under a mass layoff action. For those of you who are not familiar with the idea of a mass layoff action here is a look at how the federal government defines the term, “Monthly mass layoff numbers are from establishments which have at least 50 initial claims for unemployment insurance (UI) filed against them during a 5-week period. Extended mass layoff numbers (issued quarterly) are from a subset of such establishments—where private sector nonfarm employers indicate that 50 or more workers were separated from their jobs for at least 31 days.”

This is not the only company to make job cuts in the food industry in recent weeks. Some of you may recall our earlier coverage of job cuts to Sara Lee’s workers, but of those of you who do not here is an excerpt that will get you up to speed, “Some of you may recall the famous slogan that is attached to the well known snack cake maker Sara Lee that, with its sing song said, “Nobody doesn’t like Sara Lee.” Well, if you are about to be laid off by them you may not feel that way. As a matter of fact it is probably very fair to say that the people who are going to be gotten rid of by their employer are probably not happy about that fact, or happy about the idea that they are going to be out of a job in the near future. That is exactly what is happening to the workers of 11 retail stores that are going to be closed in the near future.”

For the time being many things are unknown about the current round of job cuts. The company has not said what kind of a severance package, if any, the workers are expected to get from the company. They have not said if the workers will get priority hiring for future openings, or if they plan to offer any form of assistance with finding a new position in the near future with another company.

Interestingly enough the company’s latest published press release, is about an acquisition in the same state, “Campbell Soup Company (NYSE:CPB) today announced it has purchased 1300 Admiral Wilson Boulevard in Camden, from Camden Gateway Properties, I, LLC. The 4-acre property includes the vacant Sears building…. The purchase of 1300 Admiral Wilson Boulevard is another step in the process of expanding the Gateway Redevelopment Plan, which was announced in February 2007. Campbell will continue to be the Master Redeveloper of the office park and will work with state and local officials to attract developers and other businesses to Camden.”