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July 7, 2017 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
Work slows at Portland plant as
Nabisco shifts production to Mexico
Nabisco workers in Portland
haven’t had their jobs out-
sourced to Mexico, but Mexican
imports are beginning to pinch
their paychecks anyway.
The Bakery Confectionery
Tobacco and Grain Millers
(BCTGM) union has been wag-
ing a national boycott campaign
against Mexican-made Nabisco
products ever since parent com-
pany Mondelēz closed several
Chicago baked good production
lines in early 2016 and reopened
them in Salinas, Mexico.
Now, work is slowing down
at the Portland bakery that pro-
duces Oreos and Chips Ahoy,
while Mexican-made versions
of those cookies fill Portland
store shelves.
Local 364 Business Repre-
sentative Cameron Taylor said
the Portland bakery shut down
entirely the week after Memo-
rial Day. Because unemploy-
ment insurance doesn’t kick in
until the second week, the shut-
down meant a week’s lost
wages for the plant’s 200 union
members. Then the last week of
June, the company ran the plant
at half capacity, with just three
of its six ovens going. The first
week of July, just two ovens
were in production. Nabisco
asked for volunteers to take a
second week of unpaid time off,
and some of the remaining pro-
duction workers were reas-
signed to sanitation duty.
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-
Ore.) mentioned the Portland
slowdown in a June 15 letter to
Mondelēz CEO Irene Rosen-
feld.
“While my constituents are
now back at work, I know they
fear future disruptions,” Wyden
wrote. Wyden asked Rosenfeld
BCTGM Local 364 President Jason Lind and his coworkers at the Portland
Nabisco bakery suffered a week-long layoff in June — even as products
made by their employer’s Mexican bakeries filled Portland grocery shelves.
to share with him the company’s
long-term vision for Oregon
production.
Wyden’s letter came after a
similar letter from Sen. Chuck
Schumer (D-N.Y.) that was
signed by 16 other Democratic
U.S. senators, including Sen.
Jeff Merkley of Oregon.
The letter expressed “deep
concern” over Mondelēz’s on-
going corporate practice of
shifting production from the
company's U.S. bakeries to its
bakeries in Mexico.
“Mondelēz’ actions … put
short-term profits ahead of in-
vesting in America and the
American worker,” the senators
wrote. “It is long past time for
all corporations, including Mon-
delēz, to end offshoring prac-
tices that foster an economic
race to the bottom and put short-
term profits ahead or American
workers and their families.”
ployees. No cost, no negotiating
a rate, no managing the paper-
work, etc.
Presently, individual states
are working on plans to supply
healthcare to its citizens. Why
give tax breaks if we can incen-
tivize by helping our own citi-
zens?
California is planning a 2.3
percent sales tax to fund
statewide health insurance. Ne-
vada is planning on having
Medicare as an option in the
health exchange. Both of these
plans are very basic, with rela-
tively high deductibles, but indi-
viduals can buy supplemental
insurance at a much more rea-
sonable rate, or not, if they wish.
Once these go into effect, how
many companies will then
choose to stay in, or move to,
these states?
Robin Zimmerman
Bakers Local 114
Lafayette, OR
OPEN FORUM
To The Editor:
Two of our largest issues weak-
ening our country today are is-
sues with healthcare and the loss
of manufacturing to foreign
countries.
It is not unusual to see state or
federal tax breaks offered to in-
centivize a company to keep a
plant local. G.E. recently de-
cided to move a plant to Canada.
One major incentive was that
they do not have to supply
health insurance to their em-
PEOPLE
Machinists rep Joe Kear retires
Joe Kear, 65, retired June 19 after Latin American solidarity.
more than three decades in the
He also came out as a gay
union movement. Kear joined man at the dawn of the modern
Machinists Local 1005 as an em- gay rights movement. He helped
ployee of Freightliner in 1984, organize Cleveland’s first march
and became a full-time union rep for lesbian and gay rights in
for District Lodge 24 in 2005. 1973. In 1976, he moved to Mi-
There, he helped negotiate and ami, where he later fought
enforce contracts for
against a campaign
about 1,000 workers,
led by singer Anita
including mechanics at
Bryant to repeal a lo-
UPS, machinists at
cal gay civil rights or-
ConMet, and assembly
dinance.
line workers at Freight-
After moving to
liner, which became
Portland in 1979, he
Daimler Trucks North
joined AFSCME Lo-
America in 2008.
cal 189 while work-
When wave after
ing at the Portland
Joe Kear
wave of layoffs reduced
Water Bureau.
the Portland truck plant work-
When Kear joined Freight-
force by more than two-thirds, liner in 1984, Local 1005 meet-
Kear helped win trade-related ings were Thursday nights. As a
benefits for laid-off workers. swing shift worker, he was un-
Daimler workers struck twice able to attend, so he helped
while Kear was their representa- amend local bylaws to change
tive, in 2007 and 2013. The meetings to Saturdays so work-
strikes might have seemed in- ers on all shifts could attend. In
conclusive at the time, but Kear 1989 he won election as shop
thinks both ended up working to steward. He was later appointed
members’ advantage: A provi- to the office of educator, and the
sion on severance pay in the Executive Board. He was
2007 contract helped keep the elected secretary-treasurer, and
plant open, and the fact that later vice president for District
workers demonstrated a willing- Lodge 24. At that time, union
ness to strike in 2013 may have business reps were appointed by
resulted in a more generous con- the district lodge president. Kear
tract offer from Daimler in 2016. helped win a bylaws change to
In fact, it might be fair to have reps directly elected by
credit Kear for keeping the Port- members. He then joined a slate
land plant open altogether. In led by Bob Petroff and won
2009 Daimler announced plans election as a business rep in
to close the plant, but reversed 2005. Kear won re-election, and
that decision after Kear brought then stayed on as an appointed
some unforeseen consequences business rep after Lodge 24
to their attention: Under a quirk merged with the Woodworkers
of federal pension law, closing District Lodge W1 in 2011, be-
the plant would have obligated coming District Lodge W24.
the company to pay a mammoth
As a labor union officer, he
“withdrawal liability” to the helped start Oregon’s chapter of
union-sponsored multi-em- Pride at Work, the AFL-CIO
ployer pension plan.
constituency group for gay and
Kear grew up in Chillicothe, lesbian union members, in the
Ohio, south of Columbus, and early 2000s. He also was a long-
got interested in politics early. time advocate of the Labor
His first strike was as a student, Party, an effort to get unions to
when he helped organize a cam- form their own political party.
pus walkout at Miami Univer- Kear attended that movement’s
sity in Oxford, Ohio. Kear founding convention in Cleve-
dropped out of college, after two land in 1996.
years, to work full time for the
District Lodge W24 rep
Cleveland office of the Student Dwayne Panian will take re-
Mobilization Committee, which sponsibility for the units Kear
organized nationwide demon- represented.
strations against the Vietnam
In retirement, Kear plans to
War.
stay active in the local and in a
A committed socialist, he union retiree organization. He’ll
worked for many causes, in- also serve as a Democratic
cluding the United Farm Work- precinct committee officer for
ers grape boycott, public school Skamania County, where he
desegregation, abortion rights, lives on 30 acres of timberland
equal rights for women, and near Washougal.