PAGE 14 | August 16, 2019 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
Nabisco retirees condemn pension cuts
By Don McIntosh
It’s been more than three years
since the contract between Bak-
ery, Confectionery, Tobacco and
Grain Millers (BCTGM) and
Mondelez-Nabisco expired, and
the two sides haven’t been able
to reach a new agreement since
then. The union says it can’t ac-
cept the company’s insistence
on replacing the pension with a
401(k). In May 2018, the com-
pany declared impasse and
withdrew from the pension any-
way, over union protest.
The pension fight has im-
pacted members of Portland-
based BCTGM Local 364 in a
personal way. On Aug. 9, union
retirees picketed outside
Nabisco’s North Portland plant,
joined by several active workers.
Mondelez has said it wants
out in part because the multi-
employer pension sponsored by
BCTGM is projected to become
insolvent, but union members
are holding onto hope that Con-
gress could pass the Butch-
Lewis Act, a bill that would loan
money to distressed pensions to
enable them to recover. That
could change the financial cal-
culus for a company like Mon-
delez, says Local 364 business
representative Cameron Taylor.
After 32 years at Nabisco, Shelly Lascher retired in 2016 at age 54, one of a wave of workers who left that year after
seeing that the company was dead-set on pulling out of the pension. Lascher says if she’d stayed, she would have
had to work to age 65. “I really liked my job. I loved my job.”
Local 364 President Leo Lovato, 55,
has been at Nabisco for 33 years.
When his company pulled out of the
pension, he says he was several
months away from being eligible to
retire. Lovato had planned on retiring
at 60, and was looking forward to
spending more time with his family
while his health was still good. “That’s
what they promised me 33 years
ago,” Lovato says. The company’s de-
cision means he’ll have to work at
least 10 more years, to age 65, Lovato
says. “I don’t have a choice. That’s re-
ally what they took away. “
Marilyn Akeung and Patsy Booze, best friends, started at the Nabisco plant
on the same day July 18, 1977, and retired 38 years later on the same day as
well, Sept. 18, 2015.
‘Our City,
Our Home’
At the invitation of Portland
Mayor Ted Wheeler and City Com-
missioners, over 200 political,
community, business, and labor
leaders assembled at Pioneer
Courthouse Square Aug. 14 to
stand against violence at political
demonstrations. In the last two
years Portland has been repeat-
edly targeted by far-right organi-
zations intent on provoking a re-
sponse from left-wing adversaries,
resulting in street brawls that have
affected the city’s reputation na-
tionally. Labor organizations
whose leaders joined the mayor in
the appeal included Northwest
Oregon Labor Council, Columbia-
Pacific Building Trades Council, AF-
SCME, AFT Oregon, Fire Fighters
Local 43, Laborers Local 483, Ore-
gon Federation of Nurses & Health
Professionals, SEIU Local 49, and
United Food and Commercial
Workers Local 555, which turned
out the contingent in yellow be-
hind the mayor, left.
