In 2015, when the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers, and Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM) was negotiating its contract with Kellogg’s, the company threatened to close one of its four plants—either the factory in Omaha, Nebraska; Memphis, Tennessee; Lancaster, Pennsylvania; or Battle Creek, Michigan—if the union didn’t make concessions.
With cereal sales declining, Kellogg’s wanted hourly workers to understand the need for compromise. Union members reluctantly agreed to the terms of the contract, which featured a two-tier system, where 30 percent of the workforce was considered transitional—with lower pay and fewer benefits—while the remaining 70 percent was designated as regular, full-time employees.
Employees were pushed to work twelve-to-sixteen-hour days, seven days a week, with no holidays or vacation time.
By the time Kellogg’s contract with BCTGM expired in 2020, a lot had changed. Cereal, unlike in 2015, was on the rise. And with a booming cereal market, spurred by pandemic-era lockdowns, came an increased demand on Kellogg’s hourly employees to produce more of its products—including breakfast classics such as Rice Krispies, Frosted Flakes, and Froot Loops.
In many cases, employees were pushed to work twelve-to-sixteen-hour days, seven days a week, with no holidays or vacation time.
In the current contract negotiations, BCTGM aims to do away with the two-tier system, which the union calls a “devious way for employers to slowly, but surely, take power from union members, their contract, and their union.”
Transitional workers make roughly $12 less per hour than regular full-time employees, with higher insurance premiums, less vacation time, and no retirement benefits. When negotiations reached a standstill, nearly 1,400 hourly workers at the four Kellogg’s plants went on strike on October 5.
Now, three weeks later, the striking Kellogg’s workers have become a part of a wave of labor unrest that includes similar strikes and other labor actions at John Deere, Kaiser Permanente, Starbucks, and among theater and film workers and miners in Alabama.
Collectively dubbed “Striketober,” these uprisings compound with a record number of employees resigning from their (mostly) service industry jobs due to low pay, lack of support, and grueling hours. The Kellogg’s strike also follows two other strikes—at Nabisco and Frito-Lay plants—that were coordinated by BCTGM earlier this year.
Despite Kellogg’s attempts at strike-breaking (such as posting an ad for temp workers “willing to cross the picket line”), workers remain resolute in their demands. “We are out here fighting against the two-wage system,” says Marvin Rush, an electrician and member of BCTGM Local 252G in Memphis, “and for the next generation of workers to have the same pay and benefits.”
Below are some of the 274 members of Local 252G in Memphis, continuing to hold out for a more just contract.
Jimmie Archie (left) and Marvin Rush (right) at the picket line.
Dorothy Wilkins, a retired BCTGM member.
Robert Hopkins.
“I’m here for equal rights for legacy and transitional employees,” says Jennifer Malone. “[They need] to have the same pay and benefits.”
Trence Jackson.