Union Strike Against Kellogg’s Enters Third Week as Company Vows to Keep Cereal on Store Shelves

Trouble continues in Cereal City.

About 1,400 union workers remain on strike at plants in four states operated by the Michigan-based Kellogg’s, including those at the cereal maker’s headquarters in Battle Creek.

Those employees are counted as essential workers by the government because they help make packaged foods like Frosted Flakes and Froot Loops during a pandemic.

But Kellogg’s says they are not essential to keeping stores stocked with cereal.

“We’re taking a stand. This is about our future. This is about everyone’s future. You have families with both parents having to work 50-60 hours a week still living paycheck to paycheck.” –Trevor Bidelman, the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union Local 3G in Battle Creek

The company is ready to move forward with production using replacement workers, even reportedly advertising for prospective employees “willing to cross a union picket line.”

Contract talks broke down after a year of fruitless negotiations.

Members of the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union say they walked off the job to protest potential benefit cuts, a two-tiered wage system and workdays they say can stretch to 16 hours.

Officials counter that they’ve offered members of the union wage increases and a path to ease overtime, though they maintain employees volunteer for much of that extra work.

The company alleges that meeting the union’s demands could cost it as much as $60 million.

But mechanic Trevor Bidelman, the president of the union’s Local 3G in Battle Creek, says the company and consumers indulging in their daily bowl of Rice Krispies stand to lose more than money if the work-stoppage drags on.

Listen: Union Local 3G President Trevor Bidelman says this fight is about the future.

Trevor Bidelman, president, Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM) International Union Local 3G: Well, this fight is really about the future. From the onset of negotiations we made it clear to the company that there had to be a path for our current transitional workforce and all current or all future hires to be able to reach to fully benefited health care and the pensions that we have now.

The company was completely opposite on that proposal. They were very clear that that was a non-starter for them. And so, a lot of the negotiations typically were slow, as those were the main items on the table that we could never really get through. The company also wants to take away people’s vacations when they have health conditions. They want to change the pay around holidays, making sure that you have to work the day before and day after, when we’re already working seven days a week, 12- and 16-hour days. We have a cost of living provision that allows our wages to go up as costs inflate. And also the wage will go down if the economy does happen to have the cost of living drop. So really, it’s just something that keeps us in social economic status that we already are. But the company wants to delete that as well. So there was just a lot of things that they wanted us to give concessions on after a year of this pandemic and us being hailed as heroes and the money that the company made. It is just not acceptable to us.

Quinn Klinefelter, WDET News: Hailed as heroes because you were out there still working in the middle of everything going on?

Yes. Matter of fact, most of us still have the letters that were given to us by our plant managers when the country was locked down that we were able to show the police why we were out on the roads.

It is the middle of a pandemic and that’s hurt a lot of businesses trying to get revenue in. Kellogg’s says in the media that what you guys are looking for could cost them up to maybe $60 million. What’s your answer to that?

When you look at it they made close to $500 million in profit in cereal alone. And the thing that I don’t understand is, really, this company has more money than sense. With their contingency plans and the fees that they’re going to incur [from] Walmart by not being able to meet their deadlines for their cereal, it’s going to far cost more than what we’re asking for.

It is in the middle of a pandemic and you’re part of the negotiation teams. Does that make it extra hard to try to negotiate a new contract, even though yours is up right now, because we are in the middle of dealing with this virus?

I do think it’s a little bit hard for the negotiation because the company has been so used to just bullying everyone around the things that we have with our pension and our health care. All they want to talk about is how you know that’s unheard of and everybody else has already given these things up and why won’t you guys? And that’s where I said you know, we’re taking a stand. This is about our future. This is about everyone’s future. And you have families with both parents having to work 50-60 hours a week still living paycheck to paycheck. And at the same time you have CEOs that are parking boats inside of boats.

“With their contingency plans and the fees that they’re going to incur [from] Walmart by not being able to meet their deadlines for their cereal, it’s going to far cost more than what we’re asking for.” –Trevor Bidelman, president, BCTGM International Union Local 3G

You talk about the future. What about your future right now? It’s gotta be hard to live on strike pay.

We put money aside in a strike fund to be prepared for this, the money that we may not have right now. Really it is what it is. The bully’s been in the room, they’ve been at the lunch table, they’ve been taking, taking, taking. And at this point we’ve had enough. We’re gonna stand up to the bully and whatever that costs us. There’s probably not too many people around that can grasp the concept of forgoing a wage increase offered by the company for us, but it’s literally in exchange to sell out the future.

The company says it’s gonna keep making food regardless. And there’s reports that third-party contractors were already showing up at the cereal plant in Omaha. Do you have any concerns the company is just going to go on without you?

Well, the reality is on that one that we’re highly skilled professionals at what we do, we are the best of the best. And we’re not real concerned with their ability to run as far as putting out any type of much quantity of food. On the other side of that, the quality of food is also another huge concern for us. They’re using the same group that they used during the 2013 and ‘14 Memphis lock-out. And when that group came in they stole everything that wasn’t bolted down, they intimidated the salary people in there, literally taking their lunches from them. [They were] having to lock themselves in rooms to eat their lunch. Even went as far as a gentleman urinating in the product itself as they were manufacturing it.

Is that proven that they did that?

Yes. You can actually pull that up on the internet right now. The gentleman actually was given a three-year sentence for it. (Editor’s Note: A Tennessee man faced three years in jail for the crime but was eventually sentenced to 10 months in prison.) So yeah, that’s all public knowledge. And again, the company is aware of that and they’re using the exact same firm.

Any idea at all how long this could go on for?

No, to be honest with you, I’m not I’m not entirely sure on that. But I do know that our resolve will stay out here one day longer. However long this company is prepared to do this, we will do this one day longer. Like I said, this is a principled fight. And at the end of the day we can’t lose that.