Workers at the Kellogg Company walked off the job and onto picket lines today in Battle Creek and in Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Nebraksa, protesting job cuts and a benefits structure they called unfair.
About 1,400 members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco and Grain Milling workers union went on strike at three out-of-state Kellogg plants. In Battle Creek, BCTGM Local 3G President Paul Walling said workers who put in double shifts during the pandemic were prepared to stay out as long as necessary to end a two-tiered benefits system.
Walling said the system prevents newer workers from earning the same wage as senior employees.
“Those folks are right there, they are right next to me on this line doing the same work I’m doing,” he added. “And 90 percent of the time they’re working more hours than the senior people are.”
“If they can come off the two-tiered thing we can bang the rest of this out, I truly believe that. But until they’re ready to ensure that the folks in my building are going to be able to have the same things I have today, tomorrow, we really don’t have a lot to talk about,” Walling said.
“We just got to the point where this ain’t right. We need to change this,” he added.
Kellogg has said it will cut 212 jobs in Battle Creek over the next two years.
