NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS | July 1, 2016 | PAGE 11
...Laid-off Nabisco workers promote
boycott of Mexican-made Oreos
From Page 1
up $46 million a year in conces-
sions. The union refused to con-
sider that ultimatum, saying
it would amount to a $29,000
cut in compensation per worker.
Mondelēz moved ahead with
the new production lines in Sali-
nas, and laid off 251 of its
Chicago production workers on
March 23. Jackson was in that
first wave. Another 43 were laid
off May 27.
“It is an older facility,” Jack-
son said, “but if you go by the
numbers, it wasn’t like we were
bottom of the class as far as the
plants go. This is being done
strictly for corporate greed.”
A disabled U.S. Navy veteran
supporting three daughters,
Jackson says it won’t be easy for
him find a job with similar pay
and benefits. Jackson, 39, was
making up to $26.08 an hour
plus benefits under the union
contract, after four-and-a-half
years working at Nabisco’s flag-
ship industrial bakery. Layoffs
targeted the least senior work-
ers, so all the workers who re-
main have been at the Chicago
Nabisco plant more than nine
years.
Jackson says on their final
day, he and his laid-off co-work-
ers were escorted out of the
plant one-by-one by security
guards.
“I guess you could say it was
like a funeral procession,” he
said. “Even though we saw this
day [coming] it was another
thing when you actually are in
the moment.”
Adding insult to injury, Jack-
son said the Monday after his
layoff, Nabisco required the re-
maining employees to work
overtime.
BCTGM has dubbed the laid-
off workers the “Nabisco/Mon-
delēz 600,” but so far, just 294
Chicago Nabisco workers have
been laid off — not 600, as the
company had announced. Since
the second wave of workers
was shown the door May 27,
there’s been no third layoff no-
tification and no talk of a third
wave. BCTGM leaders don’t
know why, but speculate it may
have to do with an unexpected
wave of retirements, adverse
publicity, and even a failure to
plan.
Meanwhile, the BCTGM
union contract covering 2,000
Nabisco workers in five states
expired Feb. 29, and the two
sides haven’t reached a new
agreement. For the union, bar-
gaining stalled over Mondelēz’
proposal to withdraw from the
union pension plan and instead
contribute the same amount to a
401(k)-style defined contribu-
tion plan; and to replace the cur-
rent fully-paid healthcare plan
with a plan that requires workers
to pay 10 percent of costs. Mon-
delēz presented the union with
what it called its “Revised Last,
Best and Final Offer” on April
8.
Nabisco may have thought
Americans wouldn’t care about
one more company shifting pro-
duction overseas, but the lay-
offs became an issue in the pres-
idential campaign. Presidential
candidate Donald Trump said
he’d never eat another Oreo.
Hillary Clinton visited the union
office across the street from the
Chicago Nabisco plant. And
Sen. Bernie Sanders sent a sur-
rogate, former Communications
Workers of America union pres-
ident Larry Cohen, to deliver a
message of solidarity.
Now BCTGM is focusing on
publicizing its boycott of Mexi-
can-made Oreos and other
Nabisco products. Jackson and
other laid-off workers have vis-
ited over a dozen cities to get the
word out.
In Portland, Jackson and
BCTGM international organizer
Nate Zeff joined Bakers Local
364 members (and supporters
from United Food and Commer-
cial Workers and the AFL-CIO)
in a June 16 picket outside the
Nabisco plant on North Colum-
bia Boulevard, where Local 364
represents about 200 workers.
And on June 17, they ad-
dressed a meeting of the Oregon
AFL-CIO executive board.
“Even though this fight is
centered around Mondelēz, it’s
actually bigger than Mondelēz,”
Jackson says. “We have to fight
this fight against Mondelēz and
all the other corporations that
are running to Mexico. We must
make this fight so hard for Mon-
delēz that the rest of the compa-
nies will see that and say it’s not
worth it.”
How to support the boycott
BCGTM and the AFL-CIO are
calling on consumers to buy
only U.S.-made Nabisco prod-
ucts: Check the label, and if it
says Made in Mexico, don’t buy
it. Also, ask your grocery man-
ager to stock only American-
made Nabisco snacks; they’re
made by union workers.
POSTAL MINIONS National Association of Letter Carriers Branch 82 once again took part in Portland’s Starlight
Parade, entering a crowd-pleasing float in which letter carriers dressed up as “Minion” characters from the
movie Despicable Me — and retrieved priority mail packages that were spit out of a chute from a house re-
sembling the house in the movie. Branch 82 has taken part in the Starlight Parade every year for the last 27
years; this year’s entry was organized by Branch 82 member Abe Redcloud. It won a third place plaque in the
community group category of the official PGE/SOLVE Starlight Parade Awards. There were 90 entries alto-
gether in this year’s parade, which took place June 4. IBEW Local 48 also took part this year.
Labor Council backs
Bernard, Humbertson
in Clackamas County
Clackamas County politicians
Jim Bernard and Ken Humbert-
son have been endorsed by the
Northwest Oregon Labor Coun-
cil in their respective races in this
fall’s general election. Bernard, a
sitting County commissioner, is
seeking to unseat County chair
John Ludlow. Humbertson is run-
ning against incumbent County
commissioner Tootie Smith. Lud-
low and Smith are anti-union, and
both received a “no endorse-
ment” from the labor council in
the primary. A no endorsement
means the council actively cam-
paigned to defeat them.
Bernard was the top vote get-
ter in a four-person primary race.
Humbertson finished second to
Smith, who got nearly 47 per-
cent of the vote.