PAGE 2 | May 1, 2020 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
NORTHWEST
LABOR
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CORRECTIONS
Portland is expected to get $114 mil-
lion in federal CARES Act relief.In our
April 3 issue, we reported $736 million.
We arrived at that figure based on a mis-
understanding of information at a briefing
by U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley's office.
Construction work building publicly-
funded housing is exempt from the
State of Washington’s stay-at-home
order, but not work on other housing
projects. In our April 17 edition, we re-
ported housing construction was exempt
without making the distinction.
THIS NEWSPAPER
BROUGHT TO YOU
BY AMERICA'S
LABOR MOVEMENT
… AND BY OUR
ADVERTISERS.
LET THEM KNOW YOU
APPRECIATE
THE SUPPORT!
SHOP LOCAL.
AND BUY UNION AND
AMERICAN-MADE.
...Walk-out at Nabisco
From Page 1
even after upping pay with a
temporary $2 an hour “COVID-
19 Appreciation Bonus.” Just
outside New York City, the
Mondelēz bakery in Fair Lawn,
New Jersey, reportedly had
nearly 200 workers stay home.
As part of the contract settle-
ment, a temporary side agree-
ment addresses employee absen-
teeism during the COVID-19
crisis: It allows Mondelēz to
bring in nonunion workers em-
ployed through a temp agency
until the end of July, at a wage of
at least $19.50 an hour, roughly
the union starting rate, though
without the union benefits. After
that, the company can offer the
temps permanent positions, and
the usual probationary period
would be waived. Union mem-
bers would still get opportunities
to work overtime before temps
could be assigned the work. The
side agreement ratifies what
Mondelēz had begun to do any-
way — bring in temps to replace
union members who stayed
home because of the pandemic.
Unofficial strike
At the Portland plant, Mondelēz
had begun advertising on
Craigslist and bringing in
nonunion temp workers. Union
members responded with an un-
official strike. On April 3, grave-
yard shift workers started leav-
ing early, and a majority of day
and swing shift workers stayed
off the job, shutting down all
five snack production lines. The
next two days, enough workers
stayed home that only one line
was able to restart.
When the nationwide deal was
presented the following week,
only two of the 210 members of
BCTGM Local 364 at the Port-
land bakery voted to approve the
agreement. But it took effect any-
way after passing narrowly at the
other locals. Normally, the union
would have a meeting to go over
the agreement line by line, but
that wasn’t possible during the
pandemic. The vote took place in
the workplace on April 13, and
local and national results were
announced April 14, with the
agreement passing by several
hundred votes.
The new agreement runs
through February 28, 2021, and
covers about 2,000 members of
six BCTGM locals at Mondelēz-
Nabisco bakeries in Portland,
Oregon; Fair Lawn, New Jersey;
Richmond, Virginia; Chicago,
Illinois; and Atlanta, Georgia, as
well as distribution centers near
Chicago and Atlanta and in Nor-
cross, Colorado. It’s basically an
extension of the contract that ex-
pired Feb. 29, 2016, except that it
no longer obligates the company
to participate in the union pen-
sion. Employees will receive a
2.25% wage increase retroactive
to March 1, 2020, bringing the
typical wage up to $28.76 an
hour. They also get a $1,000 rati-
fication bonus. [In 2016 and
2018, the company had offered
ratification bonuses of $5,000 and
$15,000, but the union didn’t sub-
mit those offers to members for a
vote.] The new agreement also
outlines a process for settling all
remaining grievances and unfair
labor practice charges: The two
sides commit to good faith efforts
to settle them within 60 days.
“We can’t figure out why the
other bakeries would vote for
this,” said Eddie Mayagoitia, a
shop steward at the Portland
bakery.
“This is a temporary agree-
ment,” said Local 364 business
representative Cameron Taylor.
“This is definitely not labor
peace.”
Now, the Portland workers are
supposed to train the temps to do
their jobs, but it’s unclear how
that can happen in a noisy envi-
ronment with workers wearing
face coverings and trying to
maintain 6’ of distance.
“The members are so angry
about this,” Taylor said. “The
company is training a work force
to take our jobs should we decide
to strike in March of next year.”
The new agreement also came
after longtime BCTGM interna-
tional president David Durkee
died March 30 at age 66 follow-
ing a long battle with cancer. On
April 16, the union’s General Ex-
ecutive Board unanimously
elected Anthony Shelton to serve
the remainder of his term.
The national union did not re-
spond to an email to its
spokesperson. By text, an organ-
izer for the national union said
the BCTGM International
Union doesn’t have a comment
at this time.
Boycott continues
Despite the agreement, the
union’s boycott of Mexican-
made Nabisco products contin-
ues. BCTGM called the boycott
in March 2016 after Mondelēz in-
stalled four new production lines
at its Salinas, Mexico, bakery,
and shut nine of its 16 production
lines in Chicago, laying off hun-
dreds of BCTGM members
there. The boycott is endorsed by
the national AFL-CIO. American
consumers are asked to check the
label and not buy any Mondelēz-
Nabisco products that say “made
in Mexico.”