As of 10 August, workers at a Nabisco bakery in North East Portland, Oregon, have been on strike for better treatment from their employer and its parent company Mondelez International, Inc. The strike began as a result of Mondelez proposing scheduling changes during contract negotiations that workers assert will limit overtime pay and laden new employees with a more expensive healthcare plan. Mondelez International is the parent company of several well-known snack brands, including ones familiar to the UK, such as Oreo, Ritz Crackers, Belvita, Cadbury, and Maynards Bassetts.
The strike has now spread to five other Nabisco facilities across the US, the latest being a distribution centre in Norcross, Georgia, with roughly 1000 workers from the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers, and Grain Millers Union now on strike nationwide, up from the 200 that walked out originally in Portland. Other sites include Chicago, Richmond VA, and Aurora, Colorado.
The strike may have come as a result of rising tensions between company and workers; in addition to the recent contract negotiations, Mondelez have previously eliminated pensions in 2018 and closed two bakeries in July, one in Atlanta, Georgia and one in Fair Lawn, New Jersey.
The contract negotiations are taking place after the previous one expired in May, with the Union navigating the details for the contract that will cover the next 4 years. Union leaders say that Mondelez is aiming to change workers from 8-hour shifts, 5 days a week to 12-hour shifts, 3 or 4 days a week, with increased mandatory work on weekends with no extra pay.
Politician Bernie Sanders has voiced his support for striking workers, asking Mondelez to treat its employees with “dignity and respect.” Actor Danny DeVito has also expressed support, tweeting “Support Nabisco workers striking for humane working hours, fair pay, outsourcing jobs. NO CONTRACTS NO SNACKS”, (a slogan that Portland workers have now adopted) indicating that he will be boycotting Mondelez products.
His support gained further attention when it seemed that the blue verification tick given to well-known Twitter users had been removed from his account. However, a spokesperson for Twitter has claimed that his account was temporarily unverified due to “incomplete” account information. Despite this, some still find the timing odd, but DeVito’s account has now been re-verified.
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