While record numbers of families struggled through lockdowns and steep unemployment, the wealthiest individuals and companies have enjoyed record profits during the global coronavirus pandemic. One such example is Nabisco’s parent company, Mondelēz International. Fortune says that Mondelēz International pulls in more than $3.5b in profits every year. The Guardian reports that in the second quarter of this year, Mondelēz reported “more than $5.5bn in profits and spent $1.5bn on stock buybacks in the first half of 2021.” Belgian businessman Dirk van de Put made just under $17 million as CEO of the confectionery, food, beverage, and snack company.
The median annual pay for a Mondelēz International employee? Just $31,000.
At the beginning of August, around 200 Nabisco bakery union workers in Portland staged a walkout. Three weeks into the strike, union workers have joined them in Colorado, Virginia, and Chicago, Illinois—the latter is where Mondelēz International is headquartered. The striking workers are represented by the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers, and Grain Millers (BCTGM). Cameron Taylor, a business agent for Local 354, told Oregon Live that the strike results from workers’ dissatisfaction with ongoing contract negotiations with the company. “This company made record profits throughout the pandemic, and then they come to the table and they want concessions. It’s absolutely a slap in the face.” In total, the strike is reportedly representing more than 1,000 Nabisco workers across the country.
The contract being negotiated would affect all three plants where workers are striking. According to the Union, they have been conceding things to Mondelēz International for years now, and after these record-breaking profits, the company asking for more concessions is unacceptable. One example cited by Portland’s Union representatives is how employees were required to work six and seven days a week during the pandemic to make those record-breaking profits. The company’s offer?
They don’t put the name on the packaging here
According to Mondelēz International, their offer is a concession on their part as they have withdrawn their “previously introduced proposal that would have allowed the use of temporary employees.” They also point to increases in their 401(k) match. Of course, the Union notes that the 401(k) was in itself a concession Union officials gave into in 2018, when Mondelēz said they could not continue to offer their employees a union pension plan. The point is that the least they can do is continue to provide an increasing match for employees’ retirement plans. One of the bigger sticking points is a new employee hire benefits program that Union officials say would be inferior to what existing workers are making. Keith Bragg, President of BCTGM Union Local 358 in Richmond, Virginia, explained that “this time they want to have a two-tier system where newer people coming in would have a difference in insurance, which would be very divisive to the union,” saying that it is clearly an attempt by management to drive a wedge into the union in the future.
Local 364 vice-president Mike Burlingham, a Portland Nabisco employee over the last 14 years, told The Guardian that these previous concessions from Mondelēz International squeezed workers—and those previous negotiations have had long-standing ramifications. “A lot of folks were very close to retirement and were able to do so under the old plan, but when the company pulled out, that basically meant that they had to continue working, they were no longer eligible to retire. It impacted all of us in a way that we can no longer count on this as being a place we can retire comfortably from.”
Another important sticking point is a revision of overtime rules. Mondelēz International writes that “For Bakeries: Alternative Work Schedules on select high-demand lines, alternating 3-4 days per week, enabling better work/life balance,” is a good thing. But union officials explain that these three to four days per week would be 12-hour shifts without overtime pay, and the concept of “select high-demand lines” can and will be anything at any time at any season. On top of that, there will be no consistency with these schedules as the “high-demand” lines shift throughout the year, and balancing one's life when you have to suddenly work four (and possibly more depending on how a week breaks out at any given time) five, six, or even eight straight 12-hour days without overtime compensation is the opposite of fostering “work/life balance.”
In 2016, the Jacobin reports, Nabisco laid off around 500 people after the union refused to take a 60 percent cut in wages and benefits. Like everything else in this pandemic, the current trends of inequality have been accelerated. Overworking current employees as the need to hire more and more new employees is driving the two-tier health benefits system Mondelēz wants.
After pulling in billions in revenue, Mondelēz International shut down their factories in Fair Lawn, New Jersey, and Atlanta, Georgia, a couple of months ago. Those facilities employed around 1,000 people and had been in operation for decades. It is the jumping-off point that the company has used to threaten concessions at the negotiation table. Having proven that they are willing to move their manufacturing jobs out of the U.S. into markets with cheaper labor forces, the union says it is trying to make sure that the jobs left in the United States are still worth fighting for.
You can watch an interview with Keith Bragg, President of BCTGM Union Local 358 in Richmond, Virginia, below.
YouTube Video
The median annual pay for a Mondelēz International employee? Just $31,000.
At the beginning of August, around 200 Nabisco bakery union workers in Portland staged a walkout. Three weeks into the strike, union workers have joined them in Colorado, Virginia, and Chicago, Illinois—the latter is where Mondelēz International is headquartered. The striking workers are represented by the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers, and Grain Millers (BCTGM). Cameron Taylor, a business agent for Local 354, told Oregon Live that the strike results from workers’ dissatisfaction with ongoing contract negotiations with the company. “This company made record profits throughout the pandemic, and then they come to the table and they want concessions. It’s absolutely a slap in the face.” In total, the strike is reportedly representing more than 1,000 Nabisco workers across the country.
The contract being negotiated would affect all three plants where workers are striking. According to the Union, they have been conceding things to Mondelēz International for years now, and after these record-breaking profits, the company asking for more concessions is unacceptable. One example cited by Portland’s Union representatives is how employees were required to work six and seven days a week during the pandemic to make those record-breaking profits. The company’s offer?
They don’t put the name on the packaging here
According to Mondelēz International, their offer is a concession on their part as they have withdrawn their “previously introduced proposal that would have allowed the use of temporary employees.” They also point to increases in their 401(k) match. Of course, the Union notes that the 401(k) was in itself a concession Union officials gave into in 2018, when Mondelēz said they could not continue to offer their employees a union pension plan. The point is that the least they can do is continue to provide an increasing match for employees’ retirement plans. One of the bigger sticking points is a new employee hire benefits program that Union officials say would be inferior to what existing workers are making. Keith Bragg, President of BCTGM Union Local 358 in Richmond, Virginia, explained that “this time they want to have a two-tier system where newer people coming in would have a difference in insurance, which would be very divisive to the union,” saying that it is clearly an attempt by management to drive a wedge into the union in the future.
Local 364 vice-president Mike Burlingham, a Portland Nabisco employee over the last 14 years, told The Guardian that these previous concessions from Mondelēz International squeezed workers—and those previous negotiations have had long-standing ramifications. “A lot of folks were very close to retirement and were able to do so under the old plan, but when the company pulled out, that basically meant that they had to continue working, they were no longer eligible to retire. It impacted all of us in a way that we can no longer count on this as being a place we can retire comfortably from.”
Another important sticking point is a revision of overtime rules. Mondelēz International writes that “For Bakeries: Alternative Work Schedules on select high-demand lines, alternating 3-4 days per week, enabling better work/life balance,” is a good thing. But union officials explain that these three to four days per week would be 12-hour shifts without overtime pay, and the concept of “select high-demand lines” can and will be anything at any time at any season. On top of that, there will be no consistency with these schedules as the “high-demand” lines shift throughout the year, and balancing one's life when you have to suddenly work four (and possibly more depending on how a week breaks out at any given time) five, six, or even eight straight 12-hour days without overtime compensation is the opposite of fostering “work/life balance.”
In 2016, the Jacobin reports, Nabisco laid off around 500 people after the union refused to take a 60 percent cut in wages and benefits. Like everything else in this pandemic, the current trends of inequality have been accelerated. Overworking current employees as the need to hire more and more new employees is driving the two-tier health benefits system Mondelēz wants.
After pulling in billions in revenue, Mondelēz International shut down their factories in Fair Lawn, New Jersey, and Atlanta, Georgia, a couple of months ago. Those facilities employed around 1,000 people and had been in operation for decades. It is the jumping-off point that the company has used to threaten concessions at the negotiation table. Having proven that they are willing to move their manufacturing jobs out of the U.S. into markets with cheaper labor forces, the union says it is trying to make sure that the jobs left in the United States are still worth fighting for.
You can watch an interview with Keith Bragg, President of BCTGM Union Local 358 in Richmond, Virginia, below.
YouTube Video