A 'strike wave' is coming to save America's working class the old-fashioned way

[Nevilledog]

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Will Bunch
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Kellogg's union worked 7 days a week or grueling 12-hours days so the cereal giant could post massive pandemic profits. Instead of rewarding its workers, Kellogg's is demanding givebacks

Why a coming strike wave could save the middle class. My new column

A ‘strike wave’ is coming to save America’s working class the old-fashioned way | Will Bunch
A nationwide walkout by Kellogg's cereal workers is the cutting edge of a fall 'strike wave' that aims to restore some power to the working class.
inquirer.com
10:17 AM · Oct 7, 2021

https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/kellogg-strike-wave-2021-labor-unrest-20211007.html

No paywall
https://archive.ph/CYfnw


Motorists zipping down State Road in Lancaster this week could be forgiven for thinking they’d passed through some kind of time warp back to the 1970s when they got to the Kellogg’s cereal factory and saw several dozen workers walking a picket line, hoisting large signs reading “On Strike” or “Fighting Corporate Greed $$$.”

Actually, many of those eastern Pennsylvania drivers probably weren’t even alive in 1985, which was the last time that unionized workers at this Lancaster facility staged a labor walkout. Today, the facility employs 380 workers who make breakfast staples such as Frosted Flakes and Rice Krispies. In the 36 years since then, most large corporations like the Battle Creek, Michigan-based cereal giant have used threats of accelerated layoffs or moving jobs to Mexico in a business-friendly America as a club to prevent strikes.

Times have changed, and rapidly. During the depths of the pandemic in 2020, Kellogg Co. actually posted skyrocketing profits — about $1.2 billion for the year — because consumers stuck at home on lockdown had emptied supermarket shelves. To meet that surge in demand, workers at its factories like the Lancaster facility were leaned on to give up their weekends or to work grueling 12-hour shifts — making extra cash, but losing time with their family and utterly exhausted when they did finally make it home.

Although Kellogg’s stock hit recent highs during the pandemic, boosting its shareholders, members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union were stunned when management demanded concessions as the current five-year contract expired. Existing workers would, in their opinion, be nickeled and dimed by givebacks on vacation time or pension contributions while any new hires would be paid substantially less, under a two-tier system. For the first time in more than a generation, workers decided to walk.

*snip*

[Sherman A1]

1. I emailed Kelloggs this morning and told them that none of their products would be purchased

as long as there was no labor agreement.

I would urge others to do the same.

[Beachnutt]

2. Retired Teamster here, Union is not what it used to be

at my old job of over 200 men all hold a union card but most have never been in the union hall..
70% are trumpers, one of the reasons I went ahead and retired.
I told most of them they were like chickens voting for colonel sanders.
Local 745 Dallas Tx

[Bluesaph]

3. Same with the trades

Full of Trumpers who fall for the “immigrants are taking our jobs” bullshit!

[Duppers]

4. "... like chickens voting for colonel sanders."

Good analogy! 👍