Credit: Central Labor Council of Memphis and West Tennessee
Union workers and Kellogg Co. have agreed to a new five-year contract, ending a strike that began in early October.
Workers went on strike for better pay and benefits for new workers. Nearly 1,400 workers refused to work at Kellogg ready-to-eat cereal facilities in Battle Creek, Michigan; Lancaster, Pennsylvania; Omaha, Nebraska; and Memphis.
Workers are expected to resume their jobs on December 27th.
“Our striking members at Kellogg’s ready-to-eat cereal production facilities courageously stood their ground and sacrificed so much in order to achieve a fair contract,” said Anthony Shelton, president of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union. “This agreement makes gains and does not include any concessions.”
Here are some highlights of the new, five-year collective bargaining agreement:
• No take aways
• No concessions
• No permanent two-tier system
• A clear path to regular full-time employment
• No plant shut-downs through October 2026
• A significant increase in the pension multiplier
“Keep your Kellogg’s factory a union shop, and your Kellogg’s products urine-free,” wrote the Central Labor Council of Memphis and West TN on Facebook last week.
It’s a reference to the ongoing strike there and to Gregory Stanton, 46, who was sentenced to 10 months in prison for urinating on a Kellogg’s Rice Krispies assembly line in 2014. He posted a video of it online.
Posted to Facebook by Central Labor Council of Memphis & West TN
Tweet of the Week
@TweetJustnTacos wrote: “Someday someone at Netflix is gonna find out about Amy Weirich and good lord that six-parter is gonna be rough.”
Greensward Battle
Posted to memphisflyer.com
Memphis artist Martha Kelly published an illustrated essay at memphisflyer.com and her website last week showing the history and struggle to protect the Overton Park Greensward.
Her paintings outline how much of the original park design has been taken over by parking lots, a fire station, a service facility, a golf course, and more. It also shows plans from recent years to increase parking for the Memphis Zoo, taking ever more parkland.
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.
A sign at the local Kellogg’s factory at 168 Frisco Avenue (Credit: Jesse Davis)
Kellogg’s workers in several U.S. cities, including Memphis, are on strike. The strike began on Tuesday, October 5th, when the master contract between the Kellogg Company and the local Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International unions expired, after a one-year extension that was put in place in 2020.
“I’ve been with Kellogg’s for 20 years,” says Kevin Bradshaw, vice president of the BCTGM 252G. “I work in the packaging department that actually ships out the finished product all over the world.”
A sign on display at the entrance to the Memphis Kellogg’s factory calls the workers “essential.” (Credit: Jesse Davis)
“They forced our hand to be on strike,” says Bradshaw. “The contract expired in 2020, but we went to impasse and we had a year extension on that contract.”
Workers have been on a picket line at the local Kellogg’s factory at 168 Frisco Avenue since the strike began.
“We are disappointed by the union’s decision to strike,” says Kellogg spokesperson Kris Bahner.
“We worked through the pandemic, seven days a week. They talk about $120,000 that we make, but they didn’t tell you that that’s overtime,” Bradshaw says. “We worked through the pandemic, we had over a third of our plant that was infected or affected in some way by Covid-19, and we still showed up to work seven days a week, 12, 16 hours a day.”
Bradshaw says that after a lock-out in 2013, the union and Kellogg Company agreed to a “progressive format” for wages and benefits for new employees, who would be hired at a lower level of pay but with a path to top pay.
“Only thing we want — we’re not asking for more money. We’re asking you to continue paying everyone who works at Kellogg’s the same amount of money, same amount of benefits and insurance. Don’t treat anybody different. Equal pay for equal work.
“We make 85 percent of the Frosted Flakes in America right here in Memphis. We make cereal in Memphis cheaper than anywhere else in the world,” Bradshaw says. “We make safe, quality food because we eat the food. We take the food home to our families.”
The full statement from the Kellogg Company is below:
Kellogg Company and the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union are engaged in negotiations to finalize a master labor contract for our four U.S. Ready to Eat Cereal (RTEC) plants. We are disappointed by the union’s decision to strike. Kellogg provides compensation and benefits for our U.S. RTEC employees that are among the industry’s best. Our offer includes increases to pay and benefits for our employees, while helping us meet the challenges of the changing cereal business.
The majority of employees working under this Master Contract enjoy a CPG (consumer packaged goods) industry-leading level of pay and benefits, which include above-market wages and pension or 401k. The average 2020 earnings for the majority of RTEC employees was $120,000.
Most employees under this contract have unparalleled, no-cost comprehensive health insurance, while less senior employees have the same health insurance as our salaried employees, but with much lower employee contributions.
Our proposals not only maintain these industry-leading level of pay and benefits, but offer significant increases in wages, benefits and retirement.
The Company has not proposed moving any RTEC volume or jobs outside of the U.S. as part of these negotiations.
We remain committed to achieving a fair and competitive contract that recognizes the important work of our employees and helps ensure the long-term success of our plants and the Company. We remain ready, willing and able to continue negotiations and hope we can reach an agreement soon. For more information, please visit https://kelloggsnegotiations.com/
The Memphis Kellogg’s factory (Credit: Jesse Davis)
