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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (May 6, 2016)
PAGE 10 | May 6, 2016 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS Dads & Daughters ...Nabisco’s union standoff “Launching Your Daughter’s Interest in a Trades Career” Special Workshop with Coffee and Refreshments Saturday, May 14 Dads & Daughters Workshop 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm Women in Trades Career Fair 9:00 am - 3:00 pm Come to Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc.’s FREE Women in Trades Career Fair! Attend interactive workshops with your daughter, including this workshop for adults & the young women in their lives. NECA-IBEW Electrical Training Center 16021 NE Airport Way, Portland OR 97230 )5((JLIWWRWKH¿UVWGDXJKWHUV attending with an adult! www.tradeswomen.net info@tradeswomen.net | 503.335.8200 x 21 From Page 1 would pay a deductible and then 10 percent of all medical costs up to a maximum. Mondelēz also proposes to withdraw from the union’s multi- employer defined benefit pension plan and instead contribute the same amount to a 401(k)-style defined con- tribution plan. Whereas the former of- fers a guaranteed monthly benefit, the latter would be a tax-deferred savings plan in which workers would take on all the risk of investments performing poorly. At Nabisco’s Portland bakery, 100 NE Columbia Boulevard, BCTGM Local 364 President Cameron Taylor says the company’s pension proposal has led 33 workers to retire since March 1 — in a workforce of about 200 — in order to preserve their “Golden 80” rights. Workers whose age plus years of service equal 80 or more are eligible for full pension ben- efits, but they’d get a smaller benefit if they wait until after the company withdraws from the plan. Taylor said local managers have been polite lately, and workers have seen no further sign of company plans to bring in strikebreakers, after unfa- miliar faces were brought onto the plant floor in February. Nationally, the union has focused on publicizing its boycott of Nabisco products that are made in Mexico. Presidential candidates Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, and Donald Trump have made an issue of the company’s 2015 decision to shift pro- duction to Mexico — and lay off 600 of its 1,200 Chicago workers. Mon- delēz told BCTGM it would spend $130 million to install four new pro- duction lines in Salinas, Mexico, and close nine of its 16 production lines in Chicago — if Chicago workers didn’t give back $46 million a year in con- cessions. BCGTM Strategic Cam- paign Coordinator Ron Baker said he thinks the company intended all along to put the new lines in Salinas. Nabisco has been making some prod- ucts at a plant in Monterrey, Mexico, since 2003. And in 2014, it opened a $350 million plant in Salinas, Mexico, and closed plants in Philadelphia and Toronto. On April 6, BCTGM asked the U.S. Department of Labor to investi- gate whether Mondelēz’ Mexican workers are represented by a bogus company-dominated union, in viola- tion of the NAFTA labor side agree- ment. So far, 251 BCGTM members have been laid off in Chicago, and May 27 is the last day for 43 more. Adding to the insult, Baker says: Those who re- main are being required to work over- time. Nabisco hasn’t done any hiring in Chicago since 2014, Baker said, and the workforce there was already down about 150. Meanwhile, a union grievance heading for arbitration ac- cuses the company of violating the contract when it hired more than 50 nonunion temps to do union mem- bers’ work in the Chicago plant, at less than half the union wage. Those temps were let go before union members were laid off, but Baker says the com- pany may owe over $1 million in back pay for the union contract violation. To protest the company’s bargain- ing stances and to publicize the boy- cott, BCGTM members have been picketing company-sponsored events, including a NASCAR race in Rich- mond, Virginia. They’ve also picketed outside the company CEO’s suburban Chicago mansion. Irene Rosenfeld, paid $21 million in 2014, lives in ul- tra-rich Kenilworth, Illinois, the sec- ond-richest neighborhood in America. HEAR FROM LAID-OFF CHICAGO NABISCO WORKERS A “boycott education team” made up of laid- off Chicago workers will be in Washington and Oregon in late May and is seeking invitations to speak at union meetings. If your union would like to hear from them, email nabisco600@bctgm.org.
