bakery – Memphis Flyer

After nearly five months of organizing, about 140 members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Local 390G are still striking in Memphis and recently took their fight for better wages and benefits to New York City, rallying outside the International Food and Flavors (IFF) headquarters.

The members of BCTGM have been on strike since June 4, at which time the union said in a press statement they hoped to negotiate a fair contract with the strikers’ employer. Prior to the strike, workers had been subject to the terms of an expired contract for more than a year.

At IFF, employees manufacture soy protein products used by Nestle and Abbott Nutrition in baby formula, pet food, and other food and beverage products. Members have been utilizing a strike fund to help pay bills, and some have taken temporary jobs to make ends meet in the meantime.

Cedric Wilson, Local 390G president and IFF worker, said about 40 people attended the NYC rally on Oct. 19 — including workers from United Auto Workers Local 3039 and the AFL-CIO.

Cedric Wilson, president of Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Local 390G of Memphis, in front of International Food and Flavors’ offices in New York. (Photo: Cedric Wilson)

Wilson said IFF leadership has not been negotiating in good faith, calling their attempts “surface bargaining,” in which a company goes through the motions without real intention to offer a fair contract. He also said BCTGM has sent letters to leadership and asked them to return to the bargaining table. While the corporation has been non-responsive and Wilson has seen scabs cross picket lines to continue working, there has been little push back from the community and local police officers.

Workers must organize if they ever hope to achieve a better future, he said. “It’s necessary,” Wilson said. “If you keep a man down, you’re going to keep losing. We decided this time, we’re not going to lay down.”

In an email statement, IFF said it has made every effort to reach a fair agreement and has presented BCTGM members with multiple offers. IFF did not respond to requests for documents proving BCTGM has declined contracts or negotiations.

“We have implemented our proposal, offering overtime pay … and have not made any changes to benefits in the 2023 plan year,” an IFF representative said in the statement.

In its 2022 corporate update, IFF reported $12.4 billion in sales.

Jacob Morrison, Valley Labor Report co-host and secretary-treasurer of the North Alabama Area Labor Council, recently spoke with Wilson on air and said the narrative about working class Southern organizers in the media is often presented in an oversimplified manner.

Organizing at a company like IFF — which doesn’t have the same name recognition Nestle and other giants do — could stand in the way of garnering additional attention and support, according to Morrison.

“Every day, workers across the South are fighting David and Goliath battles and we want to try to do what we can to raise awareness of that and help educate people about how they can do the same things in their own workplaces,” Morrison said. “These are not crazy unreachable things. This is something that normal people do and other normal people do, if they’re willing to take the time.”

Despite the challenges, Morrison said union organizing and support for labor issues are on the rise. That may be due to hearing corporate leaders publicize record profits as inflation increases, as well as working class Americans seeing results from pandemic-era programs like the expanded child tax credit that reduced child poverty to new lows.

Every day, workers across the South are fighting David and Goliath battles and we want to try to do what we can to raise awareness of that and help educate people about how they can do the same things in their own workplaces.

– Jacob Morrison, North Alabama Area Labor Council

While previously willing to accept concessions, Morrison said workers are now in a better position to demand fair wages, better conditions and overall results.

“We’ve seen there’s so much money sloshing around,” Morrison said. “We get wins. The UAW and the Teamsters have been some of the biggest consistent labor stories. The tide and public opinion has begun to turn.”

“People are believing less and less that unions are a corrupt special interest and seeing more and more than unions are basically one of the only institutions that the working class has to level the playing field against corporate greed.”

Wilson said that despite the hardship of being on strike, including not currently having healthcare for himself, workers will continue to organize until IFF is willing to negotiate.

“My biggest personal issues are … making sure everyone stays afloat, but we’re not quitting,” Wilson said. “I’m these guys’ leader. If I’m not prepared to strike, how can I tell someone else to?”

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Brother Franco and his Real Loaf bread are something of a Memphis institution. Although he hasn’t always been baking his bread in Memphis, he has been baking in Tennessee for more than 20 years.

“When Jimmy Lewis owned Squash Blossom, he used to sell my bread,” Franco says. “All his stores used to carry it, and even when I lived in East Tennessee, I would make a delivery once a week.”

Until recently, Franco was running Real Loaf Bakery in a location between Broad and Summer. He has since moved the operation to the Good Life Honeysuckle health store on Poplar across from East High School. While the store chiefly sells dietary supplements, it does offer a few local products, such as honey, Groovy Food Granola, and Brother Franco’s bread, which is baked on the premises and gives the store a warm and comforting atmosphere.

Franco’s breads are vegan and baked with mostly organic ingredients. The loaves weigh in at just under two pounds, and varieties include whole wheat, ultra grain, cracked wheat, banana nut, and blueberry. And while the $5- and $7-a-loaf price might be a little steep, it’s worth every penny.

Bread from the Real Loaf Bakery is also available at Square Foods in Cooper-Young.

Real Loaf Bakery, 3175 Poplar
(458-3003)

Fans of Jerry’s Sno Cones can rejoice. The hidden ice cream gem on Wells Station in North Memphis will now serve its frozen treats all year long.

“Customers have been asking me for a while to stay open throughout the winter,” says David Acklin, who owns and operates Jerry’s Sno Cones together with his children. “My daughter just graduated from high school, and she had an interest in managing Jerry’s, so we decided to stay open this year.”

In addition to its sno cones, slushes, freezes, shakes, and ice cream, Jerry’s has added burgers and sandwiches to its menu.

“We knew that we couldn’t add any new items to the menu during the summer, our busiest time, but we had several ideas and worked on testing those,” Acklin says. “We have been making sandwiches for about three weeks now.”

Sandwiches at Jerry’s include, among others, a cheeseburger on a buttered and grilled bun topped with hoop cheese and the works, as well as a fried baloney sandwich on buttered and grilled Texas toast with barbecue sauce, mustard, coleslaw, and cheese. Sandwich combos sell for $6 and come with French fries and a 20-ounce soda.

Another addition to the business is a telephone for call-in orders. “This is the first time in 33 years that the store actually has a phone,” Acklin says.

During the winter, Jerry’s Sno Cones is open Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Jerry’s Sno Cones, 1657 Wells Station (767-2659)

Jimmy John’s Gourmet Sandwiches is the latest addition to Memphis’ growing fast-casual sandwich-shop market. The Illinois-based chain opened its first local store on Poplar near White Station recently.

The company was started in Charleston, Illinois, in 1983 by Jimmy John Liautaud, who set out to create the world’s greatest gourmet sandwich, referencing cookbooks he’d checked out from the local library and trying his creations on friends and family members. As the story goes, Liautaud opened his first store near a college campus, trying to make ends meet while getting students and locals turned on to his sandwiches. Now, 25 years later, Jimmy John’s operates more than 500 stores, with another 160 openings scheduled for 2008. Seven of those are planned for the Memphis area.

On the menu at Jimmy John’s are eight-inch sub sandwiches on homemade French bread, including the Pepe (appelwood ham and provolone cheese), the Big John (medium-rare choice roast beef), and the Vito (Genoa salami, provolone, capicola). There’s also the Plain Slims, which are sub sandwiches minus the lettuce, tomatoes, sprouts, sauce, etc., and the Giant Sub Sandwiches with twice the meat on seven-grain or French bread.

If you can’t make it to the store, Jimmy John’s delivers for a charge of 25 cents per item, no minimum order required.

Jimmy John’s, 5181 Poplar (685-3040)