Pepsi Laid Off 150 Workers, Abruptly Closed Bottling Plant

It's always a sad day when an American company has to lay off American workers in an already tough economic climate.

That's exactly what's coming out of the soda fountain over at Pepsi. PepsiCo has announced that they are laying off 150 workers and closing a large bottling plant in Chicago.

The powers that be at Pepsi dropped a statement to explain exactly what has happened.

PepsiCo said the decision was difficult, but it described the 60-year-old building as a facility with "physical limitations." The company said it would pay workers for the next 60 days, even though they won’t be required to work.

While that seems as if it's a class-act move, it's what's required by law. If a large company lays off a mass amount of people at once, they are required to give 60 days' notice.

They skipped that and shut it down and laid off the employees, thus the pay for 60 days.

It doesn't make everything better, but it will surely ease the transition to another job for the employees who are displaced.

Chicago is one of the five largest cities in America, and a lot of jobs are unionized. Teamsters Local 727, the union that represents the Pepsi workers, said that PepsiCo's lawyers hit them with an email on Monday (Oct. 28) with the news.

Does that make it okay in the union's eyes? That's a big, fat no.

John Coli Jr., the secretary-treasurer of Local 727, said, "To lay off over a hundred Teamsters workers with no notice to them or the union, in violation of both our collective bargaining agreement and the law, is about as low as you can get."

PepsiCo's representative states, "Our top priority is to support our employees during this transition, and our commitment to serve Chicagoland remains strong."