Who’s to Blame for a Factory Shutdown: A Company, or California?

VERNON, Calif. — Teresa Robles begins her shift around dawn most days at a pork processing plant in an industrial corridor four miles south of downtown Los Angeles. She spends eight hours on her feet cutting tripe, a repetitive motion that has given her constant joint pain, but also a $17.85-an-hour income that supports her family.

So in early June, when whispers began among the 1,800 workers that the facility would soon shut down, Ms….