We at the For We Are Many Podcast stand in full Solidarity with the striking workers at the Nabisco and Mondelez International!
Just this week, Nabisco workers at the Mondelez facility in Portland said ‘enough is enough’ and went on strike. Their story is one we have seen before – and has been made worse by the pandemic’s impacts. The Nabisco workers who are members of BCTGM Local 364 were pushed to their limit through grueling hours and conditions while the corporation which employs them enjoys rising profits. For years these workers have faced offshoring, threats of offshoring and have continued to clock in, day in and day out, to get the job done. It’s time to hold Nabisco and Mondelez accountable.
Oregon AFL-CIO
The workers of BCTGM Local 364 are holding a 24-hour picket line at 100 NE Columbia Blvd in Portland (Stop by and support or join the picket!)
We’re encouraging you all to follow and share on Social Media:
Spread the word about the strike and tag Mondelez and BCTGM:
BCTGM International Facebook page
The Strike has spread to every US-based Nabisco plant, and here we offer a couple of links to Solidarity Funds (if you send us links and info to more Unions joining in this strike, we’ll continue to add to and update this resource!)
https://www.gofundme.com/f/bctgm-local-358-strike-support
https://www.gofundme.com/f/bctgm-local-364-strike-support
Here is a video from “More Perfect Union” featuring interviews with the striking workers:
We’d also like to encourage everyone to NOT cross the picket line, and refuse to buy these brands until a signable contract has been written:
Actor Danny DeVito recently lost his “blue check” verification on Twitter after Tweeting “NO CONTRACTS, NO SNACKS.”
The tweet has gone viral, and remains a stark reminder that Capitalist social media owners have a vested class interest AGAINST the working class.
The strike began all the way back on 10 August, when about 200 workers represented by the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM) union went on strike in Portland.
They have since been followed by workers in Colorado, Virginia, Illinois and Georgia.
“They don’t have any respect for their workers that gave them the opportunity to make that kind of money. We’re peons to them, and everyone is at the point where enough is enough, we’re at the point where we’re saying this is how the cookie is going to crumble now because we can’t do this.”
Darlene Carpenter, a business agent of BCTGM local 358 in Richmond
Union reps say that Mondelez has made record profits through the COVID-19 pandemic. In an effort to keep up with the increased demand, officials from Mondelēz began moving some workers from traditional 9-to-5 schedules, sometimes to 12- and 16-hour shifts.
In addition to the concerns about working longer hours without additional overtime compensation, union workers and representatives told The Washington Post that their pensions were supplanted by a 401(k) plan three years ago; they would like their pensions restored. They also expressed suspicions that two “recent factory closures in Georgia and New Jersey [were] part of a broader campaign to move low-wage work to Mexico.”
BCTGM President Anthony Shelton said in a statement that workers “are telling Nabisco to put an end to the outsourcing of jobs to Mexico and get off the ridiculous demand for contract concessions at a time when the company is making record profits.”
Mondelez International made a statement on 23 August, reading:
“Our goal has been — and continues to be — to bargain in good faith with the BCTGM leadership across our U.S. bakeries and sales distribution facilities to reach new contracts that continue to provide our employees with good wages and competitive benefits,” the statement reads. “Including quality, affordable health care and company-sponsored Enhanced Thrift Investment 401(k) Plans, while also taking steps to modernize some contract aspects which were written several decades ago.”
Mondelez previously claimed that production hadn’t been adversely affected (they’ve been bussing in strike breakers since the onset of the strike) but the strikers in Portland have gotten pretty creative in making life hell for Mondelez.
The Railway Workers Union replied:
Mike Burlingham, vice president of the union, tells Willamette Week that a large bus with tinted windows rolls into the Portland facility each morning before 6 and enters through a gate that’s then closed behind them. Strikers think the daily buses are carrying strike breakers—workers fulfilling the job duties of the 200 workers on strike with the union.
“They brought people in on a large charter bus with blacked-out windows. They go to an area where we can’t see them [unload].”
Mike Burlingham – Union Vice President
