Strike at NE Portland Nabisco bakery enters second week

About 200 union workers at the Nabisco bakery in northeast Portland resigned last week and started a strike that is now entering its second week.

Cameron Taylor, a commercial agent at Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers Local 364, said workers started the strike during contract negotiations after Mondelez International, Nabisco’s parent company, submitted a contract proposal that included a more expensive care plan for new hires and is making changes in the traditional workweek schedule that employees say will limit overtime.

This company made record profits during the pandemic and then they come to the table and want concessions, Taylor said. It’s definitely a slap in the face.

Mondelez said in a statement that they were disappointed with the strike and believed they had presented a competitive offer that would set up U.S. bakeries for future investment and long-term success.

Our goal has been and continues to be to negotiate in good faith with BCTGM leadership in our US bakeries and sales distribution facilities to secure new contracts that will continue to provide good wages and competitive advantages for our employees, Mondelez said. in a statement.

Union workers at Nabisco facilities in Aurora, Colorado and Richmond, Virginia, went on strike days after the Portland strike. The contract the company is offering would apply to employees in all three facilities. The previous contract expired earlier this year.

Members of four other unions who have workers at the Nabisco facilities that bake and package Oreos, Chips Ahoy and other cookies and crackers have stayed home in solidarity with the bakers’ union, Taylor said.

Taylor said the strike comes after Mondelez for years asked workers to make concessions.

In 2018, the company abolished its retirement plan and switched to a 401(k) plan. The union also agreed to negotiations last year to allow the company to hire temporary non-union workers.

The company’s new proposal would require bakers on high-demand lines to work a compressed work schedule of three to four 12-hour shifts per week without overtime pay, eliminate automatic premium payment for weekend shifts, and include a health care policy for new hires with a deductible and higher premiums. The current health insurance policy has no deductible.

Jesus Martinez, president of Local 364, said the company required workers to work six to seven days a week during the pandemic last year to meet production requirements. He said it was the most he had worked with the company in his decade.

They didn’t appreciate it and now they’re just throwing this in our face, Martinez said. We got through the pandemic, the most dangerous time, and they said, Now, we would take things from you. Didn’t ask for extras. We just want to keep what we have.

Laurie Guzzinati, a spokesperson for Mondelez, said the compressed work schedule would only affect a small number of employees and the company believes it would provide a better work-life balance.

In addition, Guzzinati said the revised overtime rules would ensure that employees only receive overtime on weekends when they have worked their full 40-hour shift during the week, allowing employees to work their designated shifts.

She said the companys proposal also includes pay increases and an increase in the companys 401(k) match. She said the company would no longer bring in non-union workers under the proposal.

The company said it does not expect the strike to disrupt the distribution of its cookies and crackers.

The strike comes as Nabisco closed factories in Fair Lawn, New Jersey and Atlanta earlier this summer. Those facilities, which together employed about 1,000 employees, had been operating for decades.

Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International President Anthony Shelton charged Nabisco in a statement closing the bakeries last week with union jobs and sending them to Mexico.

Modelez’s spokesperson Guzzinati disputed the characterization.

Our commitment to the US and to our thousands of employees here is very, very strong, Guzzinati said.

Mondelez’s revenue increased 2.8% in 2020 to $26.6 billion compared to a year earlier. The company employed about 79,000 people last year, of whom about 12,000 were in the United States.

Jamie Goldberg; [email protected]; @jamiebgoldberg