Striking workers are keeping the picket line active at the Kellogg Co. factory in Memphis, even as the company is hiring workers to replace them. It comes amid a flurry of strike activities across the U.S.
The labor strike here entered its second week Monday with no signs of slowing. It’s in unison with strikes at Kellogg’s plants in Battle Creek, Michigan, and Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
”They are on strike demanding equal pay and benefits,” says the Memphis Labor Council. “They are standing up to a company that made over $2.3 billion in profit so far during the pandemic and now wants to lock new hires into permanent low-wage, no-benefit employment.”
Kellogg Co. responded last week with its first formal statement on the strike. The company said no workers were being asked to give up health-care benefits, retirement benefits, holiday pay, or vacation pay. As for union claims about the new hires, Kellogg spokesperson Kris Bahner said they have the same health plan as salaried employees but pay a lower contribution, which was part of a union agreement in 2015. The new proposal maintains current pay for new hires and ”offers significant increases in wages, benefits, and retirement,” according to the company.
”We are deeply concerned that the union at our four U.S. cereal plants has decided to strike and what that means for our employees, and we are especially concerned that the union struck without allowing members to vote on our October 1st offer,” Bahner said in a statement.
The company posted jobs to indeed.com last week, seeking to temporarily replace striking workers at its plants. The listing says “we are looking for employees to cross the picket the line and join hundreds of Kellogg salaried employees, hourly employees, and contractors to keep the lines running during the strike.”
Union leaders here have kept close tabs on “scabs” — people or companies that cross the picket line to work or provide services for Kellogg. Wings on the Fly food truck crossed the line last week, but a spokesperson later said they had no knowledge of the strike until the truck arrived at the factory.
“Within a few minutes, we determined that we would not open for service in respect of your boycott,” said Lonnie Ford, managing member of the food truck company, in a statement to union leaders. “We did not open for business and departed the premises within 30 minutes of arrival.”
Workers across the U.S. are hitting picket lines in what some have dubbed “#Striketober.” About 10,000 John Deere employees went on strike last week demanding better wages. A strike of television and film workers was narrowly avoided last week after a deal on wages and conditions was reached, though the agreement could still be rejected by members.
