Pepsi workers in Chicago are out of a job after the company announced the immediate closure of the only plant left in the city on Monday.
All Pepsi employees, including 55-year-old Daryl Smith, were informed of the closure at about 5:45 a.m. ET around the same time that Teamsters Local 727 received written notice from Pepsi attorneys. Smith noticed a "high presence of security" on site, but didn't think much of it until he was called back into work at a quarter to six.
"As I walked through the door, I asked them 'What's going on? Are they about to shut the plant down?' And she put her head down," Smith told USA TODAY on Monday. "They said ... it's an old plant. It has a lot of work that needs to be done to it, and they weren't going to put any more money into it. And as of today, the plant was shut down."
The decision to close the plant was a "difficult one," PepsiCo Beverages North America said in a statement.
"This is a more than 60-year-old building that has physical limitations," the company said. "Our top priority is to support our employees during this transition, and our commitment to serve Chicagoland remains strong ... Our plans meet applicable legal requirements and we will actively work with Union leadership on the details related to the closure."