The Nestle Project: Jobs

1. Nestlé's offer of abundant jobs is misleading.
2. Most jobs that are created will not be living wage.
3. Depending on a single large employer leaves the economic health of the community at risk.

1. Nestlé's offer of abundant jobs is misleading.
Nestlé has based its job figures on distorted and misleading data. The figures appear to include temporary construction jobs and out-of-area trucking jobs that do nothing for the local economy. This will be one of the world's most modern, automated plants. All you have to do is tour one of the existing local water bottling plants or interview one of their laid off employees. No credible, independent economic impact study has been conducted, so the real number is difficult to find.

2. Most jobs that are created will not be living wage.
Throughout the water bottling industry the average worker gets paid less than a shift manager at McDonald's and has far fewer benefits. There is plenty of data to back this up, but you don't need to look far. Just talk to a temp-worker from Dannon in Mt. Shasta who is trying to live on $7.50 per hour. No one can buy a house or raise children in McCloud on this kind of wage.

Most living wage jobs will go to existing Nestlé employees, who will be offered bonuses to move here. Nestlé has a policy of offering moving bonuses to its own "anchor" employees to relocate to new operations. According to Nestlé's Redding-based spokesman, these anchor employees are "the managers, the supervisors, the people that would be training the local employees." A move from Mecosta County, Michigan to McCloud, California is hardly a hard sell and after Nestlé rewards its managers by bringing them to McCloud, how many living wage jobs will be left for the people of our community? Nestlé's spokesman has also made it clear that there are no hiring preferences given to locals and that the jobs will be advertised throughout the state. Nestlé's actual employment policies contradict their claims that the bottling operation would bring meaningful employment opportunities to McCloud. Such policies will do nothing to help the people from McCloud who are looking for living wage jobs to support their families.

3. Depending on a single large employer leaves the economic health of the community at risk.
McCloud has already experienced the consequences of depending too heavily on one employer for its economic vitality. Why make the same mistake twice? The Cal-Cedar mill property was being considered for a multi-use, wood products development that would have provided as many jobs as Nestlé is promising and incubated 4-5 separate businesses. It also would have preserved the mill buildings and equipment that represented years of work for so many of our community members. Instead, Nestlé's proposal interrupted those negotiations and locked up the Cal-Cedar property with a memorandum of understanding, for an undisclosed sum of money. As a result, we may have permanently lost the opportunity to find a buyer for the Cal-Cedar plant and buildings. They have been sold and are being dismantled. What McCloud really needs is locally generated jobs that keep money in the community, provide a living wage, and don't leave us hostage to a single, large foreign-based employer.