To: Detroit/Seattle
Workers' Voice mailing list
September 26, 2021
by Tim Hall, Detroit Workers' Voice
A majority of 1000 Nabisco workers voted to end their five-week strike September 18th despite a strong push by workers at the Portland, Oregon, plant to continue striking. The strike had closed all Nabisco bakeries and distribution facilities in the United States. Nabisco is the maker of Oreos and Ritz Crackers.
The four-year contract was approved by a 75% to 25% vote, but
opposed largely by the Portland workers. The Portland workers, who had
initiated the strike in August, had refused to disband their picket
lines when the national leadership of the Bakery, Confectionery,
Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union reached a
tentative agreement with management. Nabisco had not had a strike in
many years, so for 25% of the workforce to rebel against the union
leadership was significant.
The strike also involved workers in Colorado, Virginia, Illinois and Georgia. In Portland, workers from other unions in the Portland bakery, including Teamsters, machinists and electricians, had joined the strike. They added support and solidarity but had no voice in the outcome.
In Portland the workers built wide community support and used a variety of tactics. During the month of the strike they held weekly mass rallies which drew support from many people in the community and other unions. Supporters initiated a boycott of Nabisco products and claimed some success in the Portland area.
Portland Nabisco workers stopped a Union Pacific train from delivering supplies to the plant, talked to the conductor and gained the support of the railroad union, Railroad Workers United. Union Pacific management then said that it would not order deliveries to the plant during the strike. Workers maintained a picket at the tracks, but Nabisco called the police on the workers, who “muscled” the workers away from the tracks. The police action for the company was protested by members of the public in the September 20 issue of Willamette Week, a local Portland newspaper. Commentators in the paper noted that the police arrived at Nabisco's call in 12 minutes, while they take forever to come to aid working people in the community. One supporter commented on Facebook: “It’s tradition: Workers strike for better conditions, and the Big Bosses get violent.
Meanwhile, a group of Portland activists not from the workforce
carried out harassment tactics against the scabs brought in by
management to run the plant during the strike. The activists caused
traffic jams at the exit of the parking lot of the hotel where the
scabs were kept, delaying them from work. In addition, the activists
set off alarms of cars in the hotel parking lot to wake up the scabs in
the middle of the night.
These tactics and this militancy in Portland were probably
encouraged by the vigorous struggles in that city over the last year
and a half in favor of Black Lives Matter and against the fascist Proud
Boys organization. It is good that these active tactics are being
employed in worker's struggles, bringing the youth and workers closer
together fighting common enemies.
The strike succeeded in forcing Nabisco to drop its plan to shift the whole workforce onto an inferior health plan. This was a major issue. Additionally the workers got modest raises for four years, a $5000 settlement bonus and a doubling of the percentage of worker contributions to the 401k matched by management from 25% to 50%. The workers demanded, but did not get, restoration of their pension, stolen from them by management three years ago.
Mondelez Corporation, owner of Nabisco, had demanded that the workforce be shifted from a 9-to-5 schedule with overtime for work over 8 hours daily and over 40 hours a week, to three-day, 12 hour shifts with no overtime pay until 40 hours was reached. When they reached 36 hours they would be paid for 40. Workers estimated that the new plan would cut their yearly wage by as much as $10,000. The workers demanded complete abandonment of management’s new schedule. The strike succeeded in keeping most workers on the old schedule, with daily overtime available for those who wanted it. Management, however, kept the door open to the new, brutal schedule by setting up a trial of 12-hour shifts for weekends, claiming participation would be voluntary and mostly staffed by new workers. This plan is clearly a foot in the door for the over-all plan. And these weekend crews will still take weekend overtime opportunities away from the weekly workers.
Mondelez's revenues are up by 13% this year. Workers noted that the company is rolling in dough while it wants to squeeze the workers to the max. The pandemic resulted in a big surge of demand for snacks, which these workers produce. A few weeks ago workers at Frito-Lay waged a determined strike against another producer of snacks, which was also demanding oppressive amounts of overtime. Capitalist always claim that bigger profits will “trickle down” to benefit the workers. Instead, it seems that increased profits only whet the appetites of the exploiting capitalists to increase their pressure of the workers in pursuit of the highest possible profits.
These two small but determined strikes raise hopes that this spirit
of defiance will spread as part of a broad workers' strike movement.
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