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Decision to End Bread Making in Pärnu Raises Local Ire
Workers who received pink slips from a bakery are up at arms over the company's decision to stop making bread in the town of Pärnu.
AS Pere Leib will wind up bread production in Pärnu on January 21 putting 56 employees out of a job and angering a swath of the community.
The company, owned by Rein Kilk, will continue to make other baked and flour products.
ETV reported that for some, Kilk is a convenient culprit. Fingers are also pointed at mayor Toomas Kivimägi who, picketers charge, failed to take action for keeping the bread industry in Pärnu.
But representatives of the city government, who showed up to meet with demonstrators on January 20, say their options are limited.
"What the city can do first and foremost is to be emotionally on the side of the people of Pärnu, but what we certainly can't do is to tell Kilk that he is not allowed to do what he wants with his business," said deputy mayor Jane Mets.
The picketers will meet again on January 27 in front of the city council, which is expected to discuss a draft document that would provide some incentives for a bread producer in the city.