Pillsbury: Is General Mills being honest?

There seems to be a pre-determined trajectory to the Pillsbury story, in terms of our reactions and also as it pertains to peeling back the layers of what (sadly) is another corporate decision made far, far away, and impacting lives in this community. During the Vietnam War, Country Joe memorably asked, "What are we fighting for?"

Pillsbury's maneuverings compel an echo chorus: "Who (and what) are we working for?"

Daniel Suddeath informs us:

Gahan meets with union officials, Lt. Gov. over plant closure

 ... Gahan announced he will be taking steps to try to stave off the closure of the plant, which employs about 400 people at a facility located off Grant Line Road.

Let's hope the mayor's team is reading from the General Mills playbook (i.e., its annual report), as a frequent reader has been doing. He contributes this comment.

(Note that his reference to trans fat comes from the reported Pillsbury explanation to local employees, to the effect that there is production redundancy when consumers no longer prefer trans fat-laden products)

Pillsbury (General Mills) isn't being honest - two facts from their 2014 annual report:

1) Pillsbury enjoys a whopping 70% market share of ALL refrigerated baking products sold in America and Pillsbury refrigerated biscuits are their single best selling refrigerated baking product.

2) The company has been closing all manufacturing facilities in America that are over 50 years old; no depreciation value left. The NA plant was built in 1959.

One fact from their corporate website:

1) Pillsbury Grands® Flaky Layers Original Biscuits (one of their best selling products in history) contains NO trans fats.

Every variant (all 13 lines of biscuits) have no trans fats in their recipe.

Folks are being bought off with easy "facts".

Another pertinent question: "Didn't we as a county and a state rebuild the rail spur and highway to accommodate General Mills needs in 2009 - 2010?"

There remains much fog around this story, but at the present juncture, the reactions I'm hearing are variations on a theme of "how many carrots do we have left, and can we use them, given that we have no sticks?"