Kellogg will permanently replace strikers after their disappointing offer was rejected.
Kellogg offered a 3% wage increase that was recently rejected by the workers and has led to Kellog permanently replacing 1,400 staffers.
Kellogg workers began to strike in October as they sought out significant pay rises, saying they work 80 hour weeks.
The Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM) International Union said the overwhelming majority voted down the five-year offer.
The cereal company has faced public shaming for months as customers called to boycott their breakfast foods until workers were paid fairly.
The Kellogg’s strike is working.
Keep up the pressure and demand that @KelloggsUS negotiate a fair contract with its workers. pic.twitter.com/ME1PipxPPA
— More Perfect Union (@MorePerfectUS) December 7, 2021
The offer would have provided cost of living adjustments in the later years of the deal and preserved the current health benefits provided of employees.
However, the strikers say they deserve a much more significant raise because they routinely work more than 80 hours a week and they also kept the plant running through the coronavirus pandemic.
Employees have been striking at plants in Michigan, Nebraska, Pennsylvania and Tennessee so hopefully, that means we can keep our corn flakes down under.
“This is after just one year ago, we were hailed as heroes, as we worked through the pandemic, seven days a week, 16 hours a day. Now apparently, we are no longer heroes,” said an employee from a Kellogg plant in Michigan. “We don’t have weekends, really. We just work seven days a week, sometimes 100 to 130 days in a row. For 28 days, the machines run, then rest three days for cleaning. They don’t even treat us as well as they do their machinery.”
The company are disappointed that the offer was rejected but have said they will begin to hire permanent staff to replace the strikers.
That is of course if they’re able to find new employees willing to cross the picket line.
The strike has not done wonders for the company’s PR. You’d have to be pretty passionate about cereal to want to work 80 hours on a shitty salary just to ensure American’s get their Apple Jacks on the table.
