BRYANT -- Over 44 seasons, the Bryant Mill produced almost 20 billion pounds of raw sugar and a sweet life for workers whose can-do ethic made the operation one of the U.S. industry's most efficient.

But after the siren sounds Wednesday to signal the end of this year's harvest, it will sound no more.

In a dramatic sign of the shrinking American role in the world sugar market, the historic mill that U.S. Sugar Corp. opened just north of Pahokee in 1962 is to be shut down, dismantled and sold in parts to foreign producers.

"I expect the siren to blow a little bit longer this time," mill General Manager Jacques Albert-Thenet said. "It will be very emotional."

Of the 202 workers at the mill, fewer than 50 will stay with U.S. Sugar, most transferring to the more modern mill and refinery in nearby Clewiston, the company's base. Most will find other work. And others, such as Linda Stanley, will reluctantly retire.

"It will be a wrench, no question," said Stanley, who at the age of 19 reported to work in the Bryant Sugar House the day the office opened. She leaves a couple of months short of her 64th birthday, the mill's longest-serving employee.

"The feeling here is being part of a team," said Stanley, who lives in West Palm Beach, 37 miles from the office. "We know each other so well. When someone's having a bad day, someone else steps up. We look out for each other."

The Bryant mill opened three years after the Cuban Revolution, when the U.S. government encouraged domestic production to make up for the sugar that would no longer be bought from Fidel Castro. In grinding more than 90 million tons of cane since the first harvest in 1962-63, the Bryant mill was a major contributor to a Florida industry now valued at $2 billion a year.

But the North American Free Trade Agreement will open U.S. borders to Mexican sugar next year, and other trade accords have Florida producers scrambling to compete. U.S. Sugar's competitors in the Glades, the Fanjul family's Florida Crystals and the Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative in Belle Glade, also are under pressure.

"Unfortunately, trade agreements and foreign sugar have required automation, and that means the elimination of jobs," U.S. Sugar senior vice president Robert Coker said. "The employees of the Bryant Mill have been an integral part of our family for more than 40 years and done extraordinary work."

Making sugar is a brutal, violent process. The six-month harvest starts in fall when the cane is burned in the fields to strip it of leaves. The stalks are cut by mechanical harvesters and taken to the Bryant Mill by the company's short-line railroad.

At the mill, the foot-long sections of cane are cut up by knives, crushed, squeezed, drenched in scalding water, then squeezed again. Every last ounce of sweetness is wrung from the plant.

The residue, called bagasse, then is fed into the boilers to make steam that powers the mill.

From a distance, the mill seems to rise out of the flat green landscape like a specter from the Industrial Revolution, a gritty, noisy factory belching clouds of steam that roil up from its stacks.

Although the industry touts the energy and environmental efficiencies of sugar-making, the Bryant Mill was cited by the group Environmental Defense in 2002 as the state's leading producer of cancer-causing air pollution. In 1991 company officials pleaded guilty to eight federal charges of improperly disposing of hazardous waste and agreed to a fine of $3.75 million.

Inside, the mill vibrates with the roar of the conveyers and crushers. To talk, workers use a makeshift sugarland sign language, or shout, lips to ear, after removing earplugs. In a 24-hour operation, there is no place to relax.

But the union wages and company benefits were good, workers said, and longtime employees such as Teddy Abner, 49, a milling engineer, grew to love what he called "big moving noisy parts and the smell of molasses."

The loss to the local economy, already reeling, will be minimal, said Pahokee Mayor J.P. Sasser, since the industry has been cutting back for years. "It will definitely have a negative impact, but it's not something we can't overcome," he said.

Soon after the last rail car tips its load of cane, the crushers and boilers will be stopped and the final cleanup will begin, a process that Albert-Thenet said could take four to six weeks. U.S. Sugar plans to use the site as a rail yard.

"In my 42 years in industry, I can say this is the best team of people I've ever worked with," said Albert-Thenet, 65, a native of Mauritius with experience in Africa and the Caribbean. "Many of these people grew up around here, joined the company when young and became a team. It worked like magic."

THREE WORKERS REMEMBER THE BRYANT MILL

Publication: South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Printed: Wednesday, April 8, 2007

Linda Stanley, 63, secretary and cost analyst

After completing high school in Belle Glade in 1961, Stanley went to work for the firm hired by U.S. Sugar to build the Bryant Mill, and just never left.

"The tone here was set long ago by old-time sugar people," she said. "They brought with them a tradition of being responsible, of getting the job done."

Now widowed, the woman known as Miss Linda said she will gather up office cat Margo and retire to her hobbies: photography, travel and flying single-engine airplanes.

"I'll miss it," she said of her job. "To not see these people on a regular basis, not interact with them, that will be tough."

Roy Tucker, 62, senior watch engineer

Taking his stepfather's suggestion, Tucker applied for a general laborer's job at the new sugar mill in 1962.

"It was about the only thing going," he said.

As he rose through the ranks, going to work became a satisfying habit. "If it wasn't for the sugar company, I wouldn't have what I have now," he said, listing 30 acres of land near his home in Okeechobee, 20 head of cattle, a new car and truck and a pension.

Ready to retire, he and his wife, Judy, plan a first vacation in 25 years. Yet, he said, "It's going to be hard. I'm used to getting up, driving down here every day. I liked to do my job and do it right."

Eric Seymore, 34, production maintenance worker

With 10 years at the mill, Belle Glade native Seymore thought he had found a career. But news three years ago of the plant's closing sent him to classes to become an electrician and plumber. Working with a friend, he hopes to start his own business.

"It's like family here," he said. "I know everybody, know what I have to do. Back when I started I was running, going places. But I had a kid to support. I learned responsibility. I'm going to miss it. "