Presidential hopefuls Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have been outspoken in their frustration over Mondelez International’s plan to move as many as 600 jobs from an Oreo cookie factory in Chicago down to Mexico.
Nabisco, which makes the Oreo cookie brand, is a division of Mondelez International (MDLZ). It announced its plans to move part of its operations south of the border this past July, saying that its U.S. factory had become too inefficient despite $90 million worth of tax benefits in 1993 that had helped upgrade its factory, reported CNN Money.
That move has incited Trump and Clinton to deliver impassioned opinions on the issue. Trump promised that he’ll “never eat another Oreo again” and said that “it’s unfair to us” to move production abroad.
While, Clinton took a hard stance that companies should be required to pay back tax breaks like those Nabisco received in the past.
“If a company like Nabisco outsources and ships jobs overseas, we’ll make you give back the tax breaks you receive here in America,” Clinton said last week in Detroit.
Now, Nabisco will spend $130 million to upgrade and expand its factory production in Salinas, Mexico. The four new Mexico-based “Lines of the Future,” as Nabisco calls them, will replace nine manufacturing lines in Chicago, leading the company to lay off 600 workers there. The company says the move will save $46 million.
