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11 picket line support rally and was greeted as a hero, thanked repeatedly by striking Bakers union members and others. Nissen, with his wife Bella, turned up at a Sept. 31, after the company notified them their health benefits would expire if they stayed out, seven of them went back to work at the Portland Nabisco bakery. Solidarity starts on the picket line THE WORD SOLIDARITY STARTS WITH ‘SOLID’ Eight members of Operating Engineers Local 701 honored the strike picket lines for three weeks, but on Aug. Given those limitations, union leaders say the company may not be able to make much use of the weekend schedule compromise. But those new hires can’t be forced to stay on the weekend shifts after one year, the contract says. Martinez and others say they doubt existing workers will volunteer for the weekend schedules, meaning the company would have to staff with new hires. Before the strike, many were working lots of overtime and weekends: “12-2” schedules in which they’d work 12 days in a row followed by two days off. Weekend work isn’t very family-friendly, but at least those who work it have felt well-compensated under that fiercely defended union contract clause.

The rest of the weekend crews would continue to be paid at overtime rates of about $45 and $60 an hour respectively. That allows the company to pay close to straight time for weekend work, but only for those workers. The new contract allows Mondelēz to operate up to four production lines per bakery with crews in which up to half the workers have voluntarily agreed to work fixed weekend schedules of three 12-hour shifts, either Friday-Saturday-Sunday or Saturday-Sunday-Monday, and be paid 40 hours for 36 hours of work.

The 200 members at the Portland Nabisco plant had put it all on the line in the name of solidarity, and Local 364 president Jesus Martinez said the compromise on weekend work was what members objected to most. And the ones who don’t support us aren’t part of my community.”īCTGM mixed together the ballots from all five locations before counting them, but strike leaders in Portland’s Local 364 think the tentative agreement would have been rejected if only Portland had voted. My feeling is we have 100% community support. “Somebody asked if we have community support. Like other strikers, Bates was scheduled for four hours of picket duty per day, but most days, he was there for eight, arriving at 3 a.m. Portland strikers were less ready to compromise MODEST GOALS “We’re trying to keep what we got,” says Bill Bates, on strike after 20 years working at the Portland Nabisco bakery. For example, there’s no premium, deductible or copay for the health insurance that covers workers and their families. And next March the contract doubles the 401(k) match (to 50% of the first 6% of salary an employee contributes.)īCTGM members said they were striking to preserve what they have, and what they have is remarkable by the standards of most production workers. The new contract also pays a $5,000 ratification bonus, continues a March 2021 2.25% pay increase, and adds $0.60 an hour raises in years two and three (current pay is about $29.60 for most). Workers ratified the agreement in ballots counted Sept. The two sides reached a compromise that preserves workers’ right to time-and-a-half pay after eight hours and on Saturdays (and double time on Sundays) but also lets the company pay some workers straight time for weekend work. The agreement was reached when BCTGM and Nabisco negotiators met in Baltimore Sept. Mondelēz dropped its “two-tier” proposal to provide less generous health benefits to future hires, and its proposal to shift workers to an “alternative work schedule” of three or four 12-hour shifts a week. Altogether, about 1,000 members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco and Grain Millers (BCTGM) union took part, supported by many other Nabisco union employees who honored picket lines.īy the end the company got the message.

10 at the Nabisco bakery in Portland, and it spread within two weeks to bakeries in Chicago and Richmond and distribution centers near Denver and Atlanta. Determined to say no to concessions demanded by highly-profitable parent company Mondelēz International, workers began the strike Aug. 19, and workers returned to the job Sept. The nationwide strike at Nabisco by members of the Bakers union ended Sept. SOLIDARITY IS A MUSCLE In Portland and elsewhere, Nabisco strikers encountered extraordinary support, both on the picket lines and off.