The union has not released full details on the new agreement, but one thing that they point to is that there are hourly wage increases each year of the four-year contract. A picture of the agreement was leaked on social media which appears to show a 2.25% raise the first year, followed by 60-cent raises each of the next three years. The union also says that they have preserved their healthcare, won 401k matching, and made gains on some workplace policies.

One of the main issues the workers struck over was forced overtime, where workers often had to work six or seven days of every week and do long unscheduled shifts. It is unclear currently if gains were made on this front in the new contract.

Not all of the striking workers agreed that this new offer was better, or good enough to return to work. In Portland, local union members there say that over 200 of the workers in their area voted against the new contract and to continue striking, saying that the new offer was not much better than the previous one which they had rejected. It is unclear how deep this split opinion runs in other parts of the country but is clear that the decision was a divided one.

#PortlandOR #PeoplesStruggles #strike #Strikes #Bakery #Confectionery #Nabisco #TobaccoWorkers #andGrainMillersInternationalUnionBCTGM

Chicago, IL – Several hundred striking workers and supporters rallied September 4 at the Nabisco plant on Chicago’s South Side. Strikers marched through around the plant, and even staged a sit-down action on company property.

Workers chanted, “No justice, no peace. No contract, no cookies!”

Don Woods, president of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTWG) union Local 1, states, “The strike was caused when Nabisco’s parent company, Mondelez, proposed 12-hour shifts instead of eight hours, with no overtime unless you work a sixth or seventh day in a week. These changes are going to cost many of our members $30 or $40,000 a year in lost overtime. The employer also proposes creating a two-tier system for new hires where they would be responsible for a higher portion of their health care costs.”

Woods continued, “In 2015, the company moved 300 jobs to Mexico so they could exploit those workers for lower wages. The CEO made $16 million last year, but he wants to make more profits from us. We won’t accept more concessions.” Nabisco’s parent company Mondalez made $3.5 billion in profit last year.

Workers complained that the change to the workday, work week, and overtime rules the company demands in bargaining would also destroy family life for the over 300 workers still in the Chicago plant. Workers in the bakery deal with extreme heat, which one worker compared to being cooked in a microwave oven.

#ChicagoIL #PeoplesStruggles #strike #Strikes #Nabisco

Chicago, IL – More than 1000 union members represented by the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers' union have been striking at Nabisco, where the workers who make Oreo Cookies, Ritz Crackers, and many other popular snacks have walked out of work, saying the strike is a fight to keep what they have had. The workers are striking in Colorado, Illinois, Oregon and Virginia.

They called their strike August 10 at the Nabisco bakery in Portland, Oregon, and it has now spread to the four states, with Chicago notably joining in on August 19. They strikers say they are fighting for a contract that is free from union members’ concessions. They say when they go to work, they do not know whether they will be there for eight hours, or 12 or even 16.

Some of the concessions that the parent company of Nabisco, Mondelez, has proposed are turning eight-hours shifts into 12-hour ones with no overtime unless you work a sixth or seventh day in a week, as well as creating a tew tier system for new hires where they would be responsible for a higher portion of their health care costs.

The Nabisco workers say things got worse after Nabisco was sold to Kraft foods, which in turn spun its global snacks business off to the Mondelez International Corporation, which began making these changes to increase their profits and cut costs.

#ChicagoIL #PeoplesStruggles #strike #Strikes #Nabisco