Ogdensburg Kosher Cheese Plant Workers Back To Work

OGDENSBURG, NY — Workers for the kosher diary plant in Ogdensburg will return to work early this week as new owner Toobro, LLC. puts them on their payroll after Ahava of California refused to pay them for their work. The workers and Toobro spent Monday doing paperwork to change their employment from the old company and to help them try and recoup back pay withheld over the past two weeks.

“We are committed to doing everything in our power to ensure they are fairly and fully compensated for their work,” said Schneur Bistritzky, one of the owners of Toobro. “It is a shame that Ahava of California decided to make this transition difficult by not paying their employees for their work, but we believe our company will ultimately make the plant and the surrounding community a better place to work.”

In February, Toobro purchased all the assets of the old Ahava companies from Signature bank and invested in upgrades to the facilities, saving the firm from financial ruin and Ahava of California’s employees from being out of work. In April, Toobro entered into an agreement with Ahava of California to process dairy products for them in the Ogdensburg plant. The agreement stipulated that Ahava would continue to receive dairy products from Toobro while paying for part of the production costs – including the payment of their workers.

Ahava of California never paid Toobro for processing the dairy products, leading Toobro to end its agreement three weeks ago. At that point, Ahava of California abruptly fired 20 employees and cut off payments to the remaining 40. Toobro immediately hired the 20 terminated employees, but for legal reasons were prevented from employing the others because they had officially ended their relationship with Ahava of California.

Toobro is now in the process of working with the employees and the Department of Labor to transition the remainder of employees, which should be done by early this week. Toobro officials also pledged to help workers with any necessary legal work to get their back pay and to cooperate with the Department of Labor in their investigation of Ahava of California.

“We have always treated the employees with respect, and we will continue to do so. Ahava of California is attempting to shirk their responsibility to pay their workers that made products that they profited from,” said Bistrisky.