Nabisco workers on strike
Chicago, IL – More than 1000 union members represented by the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers' union have been striking at Nabisco, where the workers who make Oreo Cookies, Ritz Crackers, and many other popular snacks have walked out of work, saying the strike is a fight to keep what they have had. The workers are striking in Colorado, Illinois, Oregon and Virginia.
They called their strike August 10 at the Nabisco bakery in Portland, Oregon, and it has now spread to the four states, with Chicago notably joining in on August 19. They strikers say they are fighting for a contract that is free from union members’ concessions. They say when they go to work, they do not know whether they will be there for eight hours, or 12 or even 16.
Some of the concessions that the parent company of Nabisco, Mondelez, has proposed are turning eight-hours shifts into 12-hour ones with no overtime unless you work a sixth or seventh day in a week, as well as creating a tew tier system for new hires where they would be responsible for a higher portion of their health care costs.
The Nabisco workers say things got worse after Nabisco was sold to Kraft foods, which in turn spun its global snacks business off to the Mondelez International Corporation, which began making these changes to increase their profits and cut costs.