Mondelez (owner of Nabisco) has been in Fair Lawn since 1958.  If Mondelez leaves New Jersey, hundreds of jobs will go with it.  Why would Mondelez leave New Jersey after 62 years?

As reported by Food Business News, Mondelez’s North American president said: meeting consumers’ evolving needs “requires us to make our products in more flexible, agile and efficient ways …”  Mondelez says it has invested $700 million in its US bakeries since 2012, and yet the Fair Lawn facility faces “significant operational challenges, including aging infrastructure and outdated production capabilities, which would require significant investment to bring them to the modernized state required for the future.”

Why would Mondelez choose not to upgrade the Fair Lawn facility?  Why is it that production is Fair Lawn isn’t efficient or cost-effective?  Apparently New Jersey, with its high corporate taxes (raised again this year by Gov. Murphy), its aging infrastructure and its worst-in-the-nation business climate for seven straight years, is no longer an attractive opportunity for corporations like Mondelez to invest money, build modern plants, run efficient businesses and employ New Jersey workers.

Sadly, New Jersey is a state dominated by government unions (like the NJEA) who siphon off taxpayer dollars to lobby ceaselessly for more government spending and higher taxes, and against tax incentives to keep companies in New Jersey.  They do not care if New Jersey has the worst business environment in the nation.  Apparently, they do not care if Mondelez picks up and leaves.  And they have governor who stands with them.

As always, NJ citizens lose, Fair Lawn and the Mondelez workers really lose, but Gov. Murphy and his government union pals are doing just fine.