The Chicago-based Cloverhill Bakery is having to replace one-third of its workforce after many of its workers were picked up during an immigration enforcement action there earlier this year. The Swiss-owned bakery made hamburger buns for McDonalds and other fast food restaurants and supermarkets and is now being forced to hire new workers at higher wages to fill its empty positions.
Cloverhills' parent company, Aryzta, says that its struggling to hire new workers and is being pressured to raise wages to attract American workers.
“It’s proceeding very, very slowly because it’s like having a brand new factory and a brand new workforce,” Chief Executive Officer Kevin Toland said on a call with analysts. “That’s presenting a lot of challenges, as you can imagine.”
The company relied on a staffing agency to provide the workers before the enforcement action, but the agency faced federal audits earlier this year that impacted 800 workers that they had suppled to Cloverhill.
Just last week, the Trump Administration announced that it was going after a major fast food chain for hiring illegal-alien workers, but it did not identify the chain.
For more on this story, see Bloomberg.com.
